The European Commission launched a new patent initiative that hasn’t received a universally warm welcome. I can hardly blame them, since I too remember how unscrupulous Commission was when pushing for software patents.

I wrote my thoughts on patents a while ago and they haven’t changed much since. But if we are going to have a patent system in Europe, and I honestly can’t see it going away anytime soon, then it’s probably better to have a common, unified one.

Which is what this initiative was supposed to be about and since they are asking for comments, it’s a great opportunity to present them your view. Don’t miss the deadline, which is 31 March 2006!

Update: It seems there are good reasons to be concerned.