Today, both online and off-line demonstrations were organised in a final attempt to change a proposed EU-directive on software patents. The European Parliament will vote on the proposal in the plenary session on 1 September. The demonstrations were organised by FFII. In an open letter to the members of parliament, FFII points out that the proposal 'would make calculation rules and business methods such as Amazon One Click Shopping patentable, as in the USA.' Moreover, FFII fears that the 30.000 patents on software that have already been granted by the European Patent Office 'against the letter and spirit of the current law', would become enforceable in Europe, making it impossible for national courts to continue to revoke these patents.
Resistance against the proposal was also strongly voiced by a group of 10 leading European economists. According to them, the exploitation of extensive portfolios of software patents 'will have serious detrimental effects on European innovation, growth, and competitiveness.'
FFII open letter to members of parliament (27.08.2003)
http://swpat.ffii.org/letters/meps038/index.en.html
Open letter economists (25.08.2003)
http://www.researchineurope.org/policy/patentdirltr.pdf