e-ABC

For starters, the EU announced a definition of Open Standards that excludes royalty licensed, patented technology, then saw its patent friendly "Directive on Computer Implemented Inventions" delayed in the nick of time.

Meanwhile, one arm of the UK government (the Patent Office) was busy promoting the EU software patents directive, while another (the Department for Education and Skills, DfES) was fighting just the kind of patent that the directive would allow.

"Then last week, one archetypal big business, IBM, made the surprise announcement that it would give free access to 500 of its patents to anyone working on an open source project. Which contrasts rather sharply with a statement of Microsoft's boss Bill Gates to the effect that anyone opposed to royalty licenced intellectual property rights was some kind of communist."

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