A roundup of stories about the continued struggle to change (rectify) the patent systems

Enlarged Board
The reason this has now come to a head in Europe is because the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office has been debating whether software patents should be enforceable in EU counties. The battleground is Article 52 of the European Patent Convention, which specifically states what's excluded from patent protection.

One of Microsoft's top attorneys on Wednesday called for an overhaul of the patent system to create a single, global patent office that will streamline and accelerate the approval process.

The European Patent Office (EPO) passes the issue of software patentability to the top appeals body

Croatia and Norway have signed up to the European Patent Convention taking the total number of European Patent Organisation member states to 34.

Richard Stallman made an unexpected appearance at a European Patent Office presentation in Brisbane today.

Stallman, pictured, who was also due to address the World Computer Congress later in the day, carried a placard that said: "Don't get caught in software patent thickets".

Our petition aims to unify the voices of concerned Europeans, associations and companies, and calls on our politicians in Europe to stop patents on software with legislative clarifications.

A jury in Rhode Island found Microsoft guilty of patent infringement, ordering it to pay US$388 million to Uniloc, the patent holder.

"...The legislature (the European Patent Convention) says that software ideas are not patentable.

The executive (the European Patent Office) ignores this and approves software patent applications.

The judiciary (the national courts) usually declares the EPO's software patents to be invalid whenever there is a court case. .."