Patent advocates, large successful businesses, and politicians are so enthusiastic about the patenting of software that it’s hard to accept arguments from people like the FFII and Free Software Foundation who claim that the software industry simply does not need software patents and would be far better off without them.

Frequently Asked Question: Do software patents exist in the EU? Answer: The problem is that software patents exist in some ways in the EU. The power of patent governance is split between a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary.

New developments in Europe and in India show not only that software patents are being pushed into Europe but that people are also left to die with TRIPS (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights)

"Berlin, 12 December 2008 - Backed by the FFII and other organisations, software developers launch a petition in 28 languages to stop software patents and protect European innovators. The petition asks for legislative clarifications to clear out the legal uncertainty and imbalances created by software patents..."

" The future of software patents in Europe is uncertain. The Software Patent Directive was rejected by the European Parliament on the 6th of July 2005, after seven years of campaigning by people in FSFE and other organisations - most notably, one of our associate organisations, FFII. This was a monumental victory and displays the legislative competence of the Free Software community. However, the struggle is not over. Information about the current status of software patents in the EU can be found in this November 2007 blog entry: Do software patents exist in the EU?

The software patent issue is likely to return via initiatives such as the Community Patent or the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA)..."

« Richard Stallman will explain how software patents obstruct software development. Software patents are patents that cover software ideas. They restrict the development of software, so that every design decision brings a risk of getting sued. Patents in other fields restrict factories, but software patents restrict every computer user. Economic research shows that they even retard progress...»

An attempt to use a "European Free Trade Agreement" to push software patents into the EU - another menace gets noticed

When explaining why Free Software is important, one question that often comes up is: “do I really need the software freedom?”

MS and GE (Microsoft and General Electric) have jointly filed their case in favour of software patents in Europe (de facto banning of Free software) and FFII has made their mockery available as HTML, but what we also have is the submission from Red Hat, which only Glyn Moody appears to have analysed.