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“Software patent campaigners have reacted with surprise to an apparent change in the European Commission’s stance on those patents. The Commission said last week that computer programs will be excluded from patentability in the upcoming Community Patent legislation and that the European Patent Office will be bound by this law.

“This statement appears to contradict one made by the EC last year, when it said that the EPO would continue to grant software patents that make a technical contribution, despite the European Parliament’s decision to reject the software patent directive. That directive would have widened the extent to which software could be patented.”

Ingrid Marson. Europe: No Patents for Software. News.com. May 24, 2006.

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