Matthew Broersma

The Free Software Foundation Europe says it is planning to take a more active role in ensuring that Microsoft adequately complies with the European Unions antitrust remedies, the organization said on Wednesday. “We are feeling the likelihood that Microsoft will come up with something useful is less than zero,” said Carlo Piana, a partner with […]

A French appeals court ruling against Google Inc. last week could mean more legal trouble for the companys AdWords advertising program, said a specialist in IT law. The Versailles Court of Appeals upheld an October 2003 judgment in a decision published on Wednesday, ordering Google to stop allowing the linking of advertisements to search terms […]

European open-source developers say the European Commissions rejection of Microsofts protocol-licensing plan is a positive sign. But they say the commission will have to demand substantial changes to the plan if it wants to bring real competition back to the workgroup server market. The commission said Thursday that it was not satisfied with Microsofts proposed […]

Irish open-source advocates are doing their part to combat software patents in the European Union with a briefing document distributed just in time to give Irelands 16 Members of European Parliament some light reading material over St. Patricks Day. The document, timed to reach MEPs on Wednesday, was created in response to members own queries […]

A Luxembourg court has granted nine parties the right to participate in Microsofts ongoing antitrust case between the software company and the European Competition Commission. Meanwhile, one of the key remedies imposed on Microsoft by the commission, the introduction of a stripped-down Windows, is on hold while the commission evaluates new proposals for the softwares […]

The BSA has called for reform to Europes patent system, in the same week that Microsoft put forward a U.S. patent reform plan and called for harmonization among international patent regimes. The Business Software Alliance Europe on Monday suggested a number of reforms designed largely to make it easier for SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) […]

The Council of the European Union on Monday formally endorsed the EUs controversial legislation on IT patenting, paving the way for the proposal to move to its long-delayed next step in the legislative process. The proposed directive will now become European law within a year, unless it is rejected altogether. The proposals opponents, including prominent […]

The European Unions proposed law on software-related patents will affect any IT company doing business in the EU, according to legal experts. In its current form, the proposed directive on “computer-implemented inventions” could harm open-source developers and smaller software companies because it potentially makes it easier for patent holders to defend software-related patents, attorneys said. […]

The European Commission has turned down the request that a controversial IT patenting proposal be thrown out, the latest twist in the European Unions software patents drama. The decision gives the go-ahead to send the proposal through to the next stage of the legislative process. The proposed European Union-wide law on the “patentability of computer-implemented […]

The European Parliament has unanimously passed a fresh motion calling for the European Commission to take action over the European Unions controversial IT-patenting initiative, which critics say would legalize software patents. The motion increases the pressure on the Commission, following two recent EP decisions along similar lines. The EP wants the Commission to scrap the […]

A European Parliament body has adopted a motion to scrap the European Unions proposed IT patenting legislation, amid growing criticism of the proposal from EU member states. The decision by the EPs Conference of Presidents—the heads of the parliaments political groups—is the last hurdle before the parliament can formally ask the Commission for a restart. […]

The Business Software Alliance is lobbying the European Commission to loosen restrictions on the “open standards” required for a pan-European interoperability initiative, the latest such program to face industry resistance. In an open letter to the European Commission released publicly on Wednesday, Benoît Müller, the BSAs director of European software policy, said the ECs strict […]