E.U. rubber stamps patent rules

by Simon Taylor

December 15, 2004 —

European Union (E.U.) governments have rubber-stamped rules governing the patentability of inventions implemented by computers, known as the software patents directive, standing by an agreement they reached in May, according to an E.U. spokesman.

A meeting of ambassadors to the E.U. on Wednesday evening agreed to formally endorse a deal reached by member state governments in May of this year. The decision will come as a blow to opponents of the new legislation among the open source software community who argue that the rules would allow the patenting of software. For approval, the legislation still must be referred back to the European Parliament (EP), which includes many supporters of open source software.

If members of Parliament, or MEPs, reject the E.U. governments

IDG News Service