[ Thanks to Peter Ussing
for this link. ]
Subsequently to a cabinet meeting, the Polish government
officially declared yesterday evening that ‘Poland cannot support
the text that was agreed upon by the EU Council on May 18th, 2004’
as a proposal for a ‘directive on the patentability of
computer-implemented inventions.’ Consequently, the EU Council is
unable to formally adopt that legislative proposal as its common
position. Without the support of Poland, those countries that
supported the proposal in May now fall short of a qualified
majority by 16 votes. New voting weights took effect in the EU on
the 1st of this month.“After extensive consultations with organizations of IT
professionals and the Polish Patent Office, the Polish cabinet
concluded that the proposal at hand does not achieve the stated
goals of limiting patents on software and business methods in
Europe…”