[Dev-C++] Software Patents in Europe

[mar1a <ma...@ho...>]

In the next few days, the European Parliament will decide about the
legalisation and adoption of so-called "software patents" in Europe, which
are already used by large companies in other countries to put competitors
out of business. This can lead to the termination of many software projects
at least within Europe, because the holders of the over 30,000 already
granted "software patents" (currently without a legal foundation) can claim
exclusive rights and collect license fees for trivial things like "progress
bars", "mouseclicks on online order forms", "scrolling within a window" and
similar. That way, software developers will have to pay the
"software-patentholders" for using these features, even in their own,
completely self-developed applications, which can completely stall the
development of innovative software for small and medium companies. Apart
from this, the expense for patent inquiries and legal assistence is high,
for even trying to find out if the self-developed software is possibly
violating "software-patents", if you want to continue to market your
software. Contrary to real patents, "software-patents" are, in the current
draft, monopolization of business ideas and methods, even without any
tangible technical implementation.

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