As most of you know right now, the EU rejected the software patents bill by a huge majority (648 – 14 (18 abst.)) which has made a lot of people in small/medium enterprises very happy.
I think this will be a good thing long term, but it’ll be interesting how the supporters of the patent rules try to get this other ways. I think eWeek are premature to say the nail is in the coffin and this doesn’t mean that patent law in general doesn’t need tidying up across the EU.