EU Software Patentabiltiy Directive Ain't Over 'Til It's Over

According to a February 4, 2005 report in TechWorld, Nicolas Schmit, the deputy foreign minister of Luxembourg, which is currently chairing the EU Council of Ministers meetings, said that he would ask that body to formally adopt the dispurted draft directive on computer implemented inventions at a meeting on February 17:

No one is sure where the dispute will go from here. Government ministers have
been heavily lobbied by large IT companies who stand to benefit most from the
legislation, while MEPs have been heavily lobbied by open-source advocates and
smaller software companies, who stand to lose the most. Despite continued
pressure over two years, the Council has refused to budge, and shows no signs of
doing so again. Meanwhile, the Parliament has grown increasingly strong-willed.
A battle, were it to occur, could be a bloody one.

"If the re-start is formally adopted by the competent decision-makers of the Parliament then we would have something like an institutional crisis between the European Parliament, on the one hand, and the EU Council, on the other hand," adds Axel Horn at IP::JUR.

Or, as baseball hall-of-famer Yogi Berra once said, it aint over 'til its over. . . .