An opportunity to oppose European software patents | Linux Today

An opportunity to oppose European software patents

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Jun 20, 1999

“Many times during recent months and years, you have publicly
expressed your concern about monopoly dangers in the software area.
This month, at the Berlin kartell conference, you mentioned
Microsoft as an example and correctly stated that it is not the
size of the company but the dominance of communication interfaces
which is dangerous. You reassured us that your establishment is
keeping a close eye on this danger.

“Unfortunately there seem to be some colleagues in the EU who do
not share your danger consciousness. They are currently planning
measures which can only result in aggravating the anti-competitive
tendencies of the software industry and its heavy bias in favor of
very few, mainly American, software giants.

“On June 24th a legislative proposal is to be presented at the
Intellectual Property Conference in Paris, according to which a
US-like “software patent” system is to be introduced in
Europe.”

Complete
letter and opportunity to add your signature
.

Related story:
Richard Stallman
— Saving Europe from Software Patents

Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

Linux Today Logo

LinuxToday is a trusted, contributor-driven news resource supporting all types of Linux users. Our thriving international community engages with us through social media and frequent content contributions aimed at solving problems ranging from personal computing to enterprise-level IT operations. LinuxToday serves as a home for a community that struggles to find comparable information elsewhere on the web.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2026 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.