ZDNet reports that the European Commission is proposing the introduction of a European Community patent. The Commission maintains that the Community Patent would allow inventors to obtain a single patent that is legally valid throughout the European Union, which would reduce the costs of filing and litigating a patent."
But here's the rub, the European Commission Community Patent proposal states that the "[European Patent] Office will apply to the Community patent the case law which it has developed for the European patent."
As ZDNet has reported earlier, the EPO basically has continued to issue software patents (at least ones that make a "technical contribution") even after the rejection of the software patent directive by the European Parliament in July.
Thus, Florian Mueller, the founder of nosoftwarepatents.com, argues that, "[a] Community Patent regulation that effectively ratifies the case law of the EPO and thereby legalises software patents would be a Trojan Horse."
This is an issue that bears watching. The drama over software patents in Europe certainly isn't over yet.
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