Some of the world's top software houses breathed a sigh of relief on Monday when a European Parliament committee watered down tough patenting proposals, to the dismay of open-source supporters. The legislature's legal affairs committee agreed 16 to 10 to a 'patentability of computer-implemented inventions' bill, which goes to the full parliament in July. But the bill's sponsor in the legislature, French socialist Michel Rocard, suffered a string of defeats as key changes were made to his text. Rocard wanted a narrow definition of what sort of inventions could be patented, insisting that only a programmable piece of hardware could be covered, such as ABS brakes on a car or an insulin pump. Data processing and other inventions that are more pure software based should be excluded. "Software is nothing more than a collection of mathematical formulae," the former French prime minister told a packed committee room. But changes won by center-right and liberal opponents pushed the bill closer to a version adopted by the EU's 25 member states, which chose a far wider scope for patenting. "It was a mixed result but it's clear that Rocard did not have a majority, and he lost many important compromises," center-right member of the European Parliament, Piia-Noora Kauppi, said afterward.................... **************** ***************************** Kiggundu Mukasa # Computer Network Consultancy### KYM-NET LTD. # Intranets & Internet Solutions# Plot 80 Kanjokya Street P.O. Box 24284 Kampala, Uganda Tel: +256 77 972255 +256 71 221141 Fax: +256 31 262122 ***************************************************************** |
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