杏吧原创

Union, a committee of 700 European industrial property lawyers, wants the
European Commission to clarify the law on patenting computer software. The
present law confusingly says that programs 鈥渁s such鈥� are not patentable. No one
knows what this means. Inventors often describe their software as 鈥渟ystems鈥� to
get round the law. One patent examiner admitted: 鈥淚t is like a camel, difficult
to define, but you know it when you see it.鈥� Union fears it could take ten years
to get all 15 states to change their laws. So it wants the European Patent
Office to rule that a computer program cannot be patented because it is already
protected by copyright.