The European Union’s proposed Patentability of computer-implemented inventions, agreed by the EU Council in May, was rejected by the Polish government following meetings between officials and representatives of Microsoft, Novell and Sun Microsystems.
NoSoftwarePatents.com, campaigning against the directive, said Poland expressed serious concerns and now cannot support the text which was agreed upon by the EU Council.
According to NoSoftwarePatents.com, Poland’s meeting with Microsoft, Novell and Sun saw the companies confirm the proposed directive makes all software potentially patentable.
The directive is opposed by leading open source figures, such as Bruce Perens, and companies including Red Hat and MySQL. The legislation is viewed as a danger to open source, and opponents believe software is already adequately protected.
In a statement, NoSoftwarePatents.com said the directive might fall short of the EU Council’s qualified majority of 16 votes.
