[Discussioni] ultime sui brevetti software

[Francesco Potorti`]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=7605005&type=technologyNews

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union has delayed plans to approve
disputed rules on patenting computer inventions, the EU executive
Commission said on Friday, in a setback to legislation seen as vital by
big software companies.

EU ministers were expected to endorse the bill without debate next
Thursday and send it for a second reading in the European Parliament,
but the bloc's current president Luxembourg has taken the issue off the
meeting's agenda.

"The Commission regrets very much that the software patent will not be
on the agenda. It has been removed," Commission spokesman Olivier Drewes
told a news conference.

He said the legislation had run into new problems but declined to give
details.

The Dutch parliament asked the government on Thursday to ensure that the
patent bill would not be approved next week without new discussion after
the European Parliament's legal affairs committee called for it to be
scrapped.

The draft law has sparked heated debate over whether the EU should
steer away from patenting computer programs or follow the U.S. model of
granting patents for Internet business methods such as online bookseller
Amazon's famous "one-click shopping".

Critics of the legislation say it would harm small software developers
who lack big companies' legal muscle. Some also fear it would restrict
the amount of "open source" software which is available free of charge.

Big industry players argue the current position does not allow them to
protect inventions they spend years developing.

The Netherlands has so far backed the legislation.

Diplomats say Poland has dropped its opposition to the legislation after
delaying its approval for two months due to concerns over its impact on
small and medium-size companies.

European Parliament leaders have yet to decide whether formally to
request that the Commission, which drafts EU laws and has the power to
ditch the legislation, withdraw its proposal.