The Software patents directive is dead.

The European Parliament have rejected the proposed Software Directive (officially known as the Directive on the Patentability of Computer Implemented Inventions). Marks & Clerk, one of Europe's leading firms of patent and trade mark attorneys, believes that the many amendments proposed to the Directive were such that rejection of the Directive was the only way to ensure that European software companies could retain effective patent protection for their software inventions. The Directive was intended to harmonise the differing interpretations of patent law concerning software inventions in member states in accordance with the practice established by the European Patent Office, and to clarify the scope of patent protection afforded to software inventions.

However, those opposed to patent protection for software inventions saw the Directive as an opportunity to reduce the scope of protection for software inventions. This resulted in a long period of intense lobbying on the content of the Directive, resulting in many amendments being proposed and culminating in frantic activity over the past two days in Strasbourg. Had the Directive been passed it could have resulted in software patent protection being weakened.

The rejection means that there is no formal harmonisation across the European Union in this area of patent law. However, it also means that patent protection is at least no worse than it has been: current practices of both the European Patent Office and the EU member states are maintained.