A controversial software patents directive has been delayed in the European Union once more after a last minute intervention from Polish representatives.
The Software Patent Directive has been withdrawn from the Council of Agriculture and Fisheries' agenda. Polish Under-secretary from the Ministry for Science and I.T., Wlodzimierz Marcinski, personally appeared for the meeting and announced that Poland would object to the directive being put on the agenda. He said that "Poland is determined to opt for unambiguous expression in the law of the European Union on issues connected with the patentability of computer-implemented inventions, which at the same time must ascertain that computer programs are excluded from patentability." The Polish actions against the directive have received thanks from the online community, with 25,000 messages of gratitude being logged on thankpoland.info.
A lot of pressure had been placed on Polish representatives by Dutch and German members to allow the directive to be passed. Christian Beauprez of CodeLiberty.org said "The Polish Government have led the way to finding a true compromise. They have seen through the hollow, illogical threats of TRIPS non-compliance and intense diplomatic pressuring and have stated that computer programs, contrary to the belief of patent pushers, do not cease to be programs when they are loaded into a computer."
The directive is also being pushed by patent groups who want similar laws in Europe as in America. The FFII, a European group attempting to aid the "spread of data processing literacy" suggest that the EU pursue a more a reasonable policy and take time to revise the text. The FFII oppose the rules and fear they "may stifle innovation and favour large IT players". Poland's most recent objection may provide helpful time to EU anti-patent groups to lobby the EU against the directive; however, there are many more opportunities for the directive to resurface. The fight against European software patents is far from over.
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