European Parliament Nixes Software Patent Law
As can be read here and here the European Parliament has voted against the proposed software patent law. This is great news for all the innovative smaller companies in Europe. Thanks to relentless lobbying from the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) and many European citizens submitting their opinion to MEP’s common sense was victorious. Given the tons of ridiculous patent awards by the USPTO and the subsequent storm of patent litigation in the US, this is a good if not excellent thing. The rejection by the MEP’s is also very good for the Free and Open Source Software Community (F/OSS). The rejected software patent law would allow dominant vendors to defend their decaying business model and sliding market share with a questionnable barrage of patent infringement lawsuits. This will now not be a possibility in Europe. Given that the adoption of F/OSS is most significant in Europe and Asia, this is excellent news for businesses and consumers who demand and deserve choice, freedom and better value.