3 ms·
It's not entirely true that in Europe that software patents don't exist. From: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/swpat/swpat.en.html https://fsfe.org/campaigns/swpat/
by adamt 8y ago
It's not entirely true that in Europe that software patents don't exist.
From: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/swpat/swpat.en.html https://fsfe.org/campaigns/swpat/swpat.en.html
"The European Patent Convention states that software is not patentable. But laws are always interpreted by courts, and in this case interpretations of the law differ. So the European Patents Office (EPO) grants software patents by declaring them as "computer implemented inventions". "
There's 20,000 hits for a Google patent search for patents assigned to SAP (https://patents.google.com/?assignee=SAP+SE+ https://patents.google.com/?assignee=SAP+SE+)
- arendtio 8y agoThanks for clarifying. While I kinda expected SAP to have some software patents, I didn't know that software patents or 'computer implemented inventions' were still a thing in Europe.
- dfox 8y agoWhat that quoted sentence means is that you can file for a software patent with EPO and it will usually be granted. Implication by omission from that is that resulting patent is essentially unenforceable in the EU.