● 06.09.13

●● Software Patenting Under Attack in Germany

Posted in Europe, Patents at 11:23 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: A common patent battleground for Android and Linux opponents is on the edge of putting an end to this chaos

Politicians in Germany recently took a stance against the EPO, resulting in a lot of coverage in German blogs. Jimmy Schulz has this summary in German and André Rebentisch helps warp it to English:

In the German Parliament Bundestag a motion is pending review and backed by all relevant political groups (except the left fringe party Die Linke). It concerns the need to better draw the line between the spheres of patentable inventions and of copyrightable data processing. A legal clarification of patent law is sought to prevent an unwanted expansion of its material scope. The intergroup motion has been translated to English by an association for small and medium sized software companies.

Several years ago Microsoft used a German court to legitimise FAT patents which would later be at the centre of anti-Linux extortion even in Europe, e.g. TomTom.

More recently Apple too was using Germany to get Linux/Android banned (with only limited success). In the US, Apple may be facing a ban after suing Samsung (also in Germany) and facing blowback. Here is Apple collecting more controversial patents on software. No changes after the death of Steve Jobs, not even technological advancements. █

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