The European Parliament has voted in favour of a law
that goes some way towards limiting the scope for patents on
software programs.
With 364 voting in favour, 153 against and 33 abstaining, MEPs
appear to have ignored heavy lobbying from both extremes in the
debate by opting for a compromise solution.
The parliament was considering changes to the original text
published by the European Commission. Most of the changes were
designed to tighten up the wording of the law to make it harder for
people to obtain patents.
For example, the MEPs agreed to an amendment which outlaws the
patenting of algorithms. Another accepted an amendment which
explicitly outlaws the patenting of business methods, such as the
"one-click" online shopping technique patented in the US by
Amazon.com.
"Inventions involving computer programs which implement
business, mathematical or other methods and do not produce any
technical effect beyond the normal physical interactions between a
program and the computer, network or other programmable apparatus
in which it is run, shall not be patentable," the amendment
read.
This is the first of two votes on the software patent directive
in the European Parliament. Before casting their ballots again, the
directive, including the amendments agreed on by the MEPs todayday,
will be debated by the state governments of the 15-member
Parliament.
Paul Meller writes for IDG News
Service