European Parliament rejects software patents bill

Proposed legislation which would have allowed companies to patent software innovations has been rejected by an overwhelming margin by the European Parliament, despite pro-bill lobbying from companies including Microsoft and Nokia.

The directive, known as the Directive on the Patentability of Computer Implemented Innovations, was struck down by a margin of 648 votes to 14, with 18 MEPs abstaining from the vote.

The European Commission has now pledged that it will scrap the bill entirely in favour of attempting to draw up new patent legislation, rather than attempting to amend the existing bill.

Software is already protected by strong copyright laws in Europe, and many small companies and open source developers feared that the introduction of software patents as outlined by the legislation would stifle their ability to innovate and compete.

Indeed, while large firms actively lobbied for the bill, a massive campaign against it was led by a huge number of smaller companies across Europe, citing the situation in the USA where a hugely flawed patent system not dissimilar to the one proposed in the directive has led to the patenting of basic business processes such as Amazon's one-click shopping system.

The law could also have had a massively negative impact on videogame developers, particularly small independent developers - who could have faced costly legal battles or hefty licensing fees to be allowed to use relatively basic techniques in creating their games.

It's unlikely that this defeat spells the end of software patents in Europe entirely, but the sheer magnitude of the defeat - and the vocal campaign against the directive - almost certainly ensures that whatever legislation is proposed next in this field will be far more palatable to small businesses and open source developers alike.