[x-pubpol] Beware: Europe's 'unitary patent' could mean unlimited software patents

[Joly MacFie]

Richard Stallman writes...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/22/european-unitary-patent-software-warning

The volunteer activists drifted away, thinking the battle won, but the
corporate lobbyists for software patents were paid to stay on the job. Now
they have contrived another sneaky method: the "unitary patent" system
proposed for the EU. Under this system, if the European Patent Office issues
a patent, it will automatically be valid in every participating country,
which in this case means all of the EU except for Spain and Italy.

How would that affect software patents? Evidently, either the unitary patent
system would allow software patents or it wouldn't. If it allows them, no
country will be able to escape them on its own. That would be bad, but what
if the system rejects software patents? Then it would be good – right?

Right – except the plan was designed to prevent that. A small but crucial
detail in the plan is that appeals against the EPO's decisions would be
decided based on the EPO's own rules. The EPO could thus tie European
business and computer users in knots to its heart's content.

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