2004-12-01 AT SPÖ Resolution Against Software Patents, Call for Renegotiation in Council
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Siegi Lindenmayr, Viennese MP of the SPÖ (Social-democratic Party of Austria, one of two large parties of Austria, currently in opposition), in a press release explains a motion against software patents which the SPÖ federal party convent has just adopted.
See
for details.
Some translated quotes:
From the PR of MP Siegi Lindenmayr
- "Computer software should not be protected by patents -- copyright is sufficient." "However, at the EU level a directive is in the working that is supposed to enable such patents. That is a clear circumvention of the European Patent Convention, in which computer programs and mathematics are clearly excluded from patentability. Trusting this exclusion, small companies have justly ignored the patents on algorithms and business methods that the European Patent Office has been granting during recent years. The SPOe sees such patent-granting as a massive threat to the domestic software business." "I am happy to see some equally critical views expressed in other
- parties and therefore ask all Austrian Members of the European Parliament to demand a new discussion in the Council of Ministers".
Key Phrases of the Resolution
- "Computer programs are not inventions in the sense of patent law and already sufficiently protected by copyright. The Federal Party Convention of SPOe therefore speaks up in the interest of the Austrian and European industry against the possibility of granting of software patents.