You may remember that, about six years ago, there was a push in Europe to have the EU Parliament legalize software patents. After a huge uproar among folks who understand just how damaging towards innovation software patents can be, the EU Parliament voted against the idea by a huge margin. Except… software patents are still finding their way into Europe. Last year, we wrote about how the UK was now recognizing software patents by saying that it’s not a pure software patent if it makes a “technical contribution,” whatever that means.
Perhaps even more alarming is the news, found via Glyn Moody that a German court has effectively allowed a wide range of software patents. Previously, you could have very limited software patents only if they involved using “controllable forces of nature” to create a desired effect. Software usually did not qualify:
By contrast, the new ruling of that court on the document generation program now sets the bar extremely low. It now basically says that a computer is a technical device per se and software that “takes into account” the characteristics of that computer is patentable. To give some examples, if you make sure you don’t allocate infinite amounts of memory (since every computer has limits in that respect), that might be enough. Or you ensure that you don’t use too much bandwidth over a network.
So, as we sit and wait in the US for a ruling on Bilski, hoping (but doubting) that it will greatly curtail software patents, Germany is going in the opposite direction.
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