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Pan ignoramus
Patentat Software
Software-Patents in Europe: The threat prevails
Soon the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers will again decide about the legalisation and adoption of so-called software patents in Europe, which are already used by large companies in other countries to put competitors out of business. This can lead to the termination of many software projects such as KNOPPIX, at least within Europe, because the holders of the over 30,000 already granted software patents (currently without a legal foundation) can claim exclusive rights and collect license fees for trivial things like progress bars, mouseclicks on online order forms, scrolling within a window and similar. That way, software developers will have to pay the software-patentholders for using these features, even in their own, completely self-developed applications, which can completely stall the development of innovative software for small and medium companies. Apart from this, the expense for patent inquiries and legal assistence is high, for even trying to find out if the self-developed software is possibly violating software-patents, if you want to continue to market your software. Contrary to real patents, software-patents are, in the draft proposed by the commission, monopolization of business ideas and methods, even without any tangible technical implementation.
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Have I told you lately...
Software-Patents in Europe: The threat prevails
Soon the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers will again decide about the legalisation and adoption of so-called software patents in Europe, which are already used by large companies in other countries to put competitors out of business. This can lead to the termination of many software projects such as KNOPPIX, at least within Europe, because the holders of the over 30,000 already granted software patents (currently without a legal foundation) can claim exclusive rights and collect license fees for trivial things like progress bars, mouseclicks on online order forms, scrolling within a window and similar. That way, software developers will have to pay the software-patentholders for using these features, even in their own, completely self-developed applications, which can completely stall the development of innovative software for small and medium companies. Apart from this, the expense for patent inquiries and legal assistence is high, for even trying to find out if the self-developed software is possibly violating software-patents, if you want to continue to market your software. Contrary to real patents, software-patents are, in the draft proposed by the commission, monopolization of business ideas and methods, even without any tangible technical implementation.
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Have I told you lately...