UK government position

[David Holden <dh@iucr.org>]

On Monday 24 Nov 2003 11:38 am, Carles Comes wrote:
> Does anybody know which are the next steps about the Directive on the
> patentability of computer-implemented inventions?.
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> Carles Comes

I recently got a reply from Stephen Timms MP (Minister responsible for 
Intellectual property in UK). Suffice to say It was not very encouraging.

It stated that the UK position was the result of a wide-ranging consultation 
carried out in 2000 that supported clarification of the current law and the 
continued restriction on patentability of "business methods" software. It 
also said that the UK had been granting patents for "software related 
inventions" for decades without hindering the development of open source 
software.

 The tenor of the letter seemed to be pro patents, and did not really address 
any of my concerns with regard to the use of open software in our business, 
I found it quite disheartening.

   Dave.


-- 
Dr. David Holden. (Systems Developer)
Crystallography Journals Online: <http://journals.iucr.org>

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