Matthew Broersma

The Council of the European Union on Monday formally endorsed the EUs controversial legislation on IT patenting, paving the way for the proposal to move to its long-delayed next step in the legislative process. The proposed directive will now become European law within a year, unless it is rejected altogether. The proposals opponents, including prominent […]

The European Unions proposed law on software-related patents will affect any IT company doing business in the EU, according to legal experts. In its current form, the proposed directive on “computer-implemented inventions” could harm open-source developers and smaller software companies because it potentially makes it easier for patent holders to defend software-related patents, attorneys said. […]

The European Commission has turned down the request that a controversial IT patenting proposal be thrown out, the latest twist in the European Unions software patents drama. The decision gives the go-ahead to send the proposal through to the next stage of the legislative process. The proposed European Union-wide law on the “patentability of computer-implemented […]

The European Parliament has unanimously passed a fresh motion calling for the European Commission to take action over the European Unions controversial IT-patenting initiative, which critics say would legalize software patents. The motion increases the pressure on the Commission, following two recent EP decisions along similar lines. The EP wants the Commission to scrap the […]

A European Parliament body has adopted a motion to scrap the European Unions proposed IT patenting legislation, amid growing criticism of the proposal from EU member states. The decision by the EPs Conference of Presidents—the heads of the parliaments political groups—is the last hurdle before the parliament can formally ask the Commission for a restart. […]

The Business Software Alliance is lobbying the European Commission to loosen restrictions on the “open standards” required for a pan-European interoperability initiative, the latest such program to face industry resistance. In an open letter to the European Commission released publicly on Wednesday, Benoît Müller, the BSAs director of European software policy, said the ECs strict […]

Open-source advocates and representatives of small and medium-sized businesses are planning to stage protests in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday, amid two key votes that could lead the European Commission to scrap its current IT patenting proposal. Also on Thursday, the EU Council had planned to adopt a disputed version of the draft IT patenting directive—known […]

A recent decision against Google Inc. in a French court is a reminder that conflicts over jurisdiction and how trademarks are protected online are likely to get worse before they get better, according to legal analysts. On Feb. 4 the Paris lower court (Tribunal de Grande Instance) imposed a 200,000-euro fine and sanctioned Google.com and […]

Malicious programmers are already sharpening their claws on Microsoft Corp.s anti-spyware software, even before the applications official release. On Wednesday anti-virus firms said they uncovered the first malware that switches off Microsoft AntiSpyware, along with its other functions. Troj/BankAsh-A, also known as Trojan-Spy.Win32.Banker.jv and PWS-Banker.j, includes a keylogger and attempts to steal credit card details, […]

An influential European Union government advisory body has called for better protection of users privacy, which it says is being eroded in the midst of efforts to crack down on piracy. While copyright holders have a right to protect themselves from infringement, the EU Working Party on Data Protection in a new draft document expressed […]