[Patents] European Union plans to adopt US kind "liberal practice" on softwarePatents

[Nick Fleming marmalade@x-stream.co.uk]

> The Software Directive announced for Summer of this year will be a further
> building block of the legislative framework. The Directive should put an 
> end to
> a situation where computer programs "as such" are legally excluded from
> patentability but thousands of patents for  technical inventions using a
> computer program have been granted by the patent offices. 

So, it appears that the commissioner understands that computer programs "as 
such"
are legally excluded, yet have been granted patents. What I want to know is,
will the Software Directive legalise such patents, or will it implement the 
main
obligations of the 1996 WIPO Treaties (as mentioned elsewhere in the same 
speech)
and effectively restore software to their rightful copyright-only status ??

Regards,

Nick F.