World Day Against Software Patents Date in the current year: September 24, 2024

Software patents are patents on a piece of software, such as a computer program, user interface, library, or algorithm. They grant a set of exclusionary rights to a patent holder for a limited period of time in exchange for the disclosure of the invention. Software patents, like other patents, are territorial in nature. This means that inventors must file separate patent applications in every country in which they want to obtain a patent.

The concept of software patents has been subject to criticism for quite some time. The most common objection is that such patents relate to trivial inventions that could be easily developed by many people independently of one another. This may lead to the development of a large number of competing, incompatible formats and discourage rather than encourage innovation.

There is a debate over whether software patents should be granted and if yes, to what extent, i.e. where to draw the line between patentable and non-patentable software. The free software community tends to exhibit strong dislike towards software patents because they often lead to termination of free or open source software projects due to actions of patent holders such as high license fees and other unfavorable licensing terms.

One of the organizations that oppose software patents is the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII). Founded in 1999 in Germany, it is a non-profit volunteer organization that aims to establish a free market in information technology by removing barriers for competition. The FFII is probably best known for opposing the proposed EU directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions.

The directive was aimed at harmonizing national patent laws and practices concerning the granting of patents for computer-implemented inventions within the European Union. However, its first version was criticized by those who were afraid it would make all software patentable. The FFII strongly but indirectly lobbied the European Parliament against the proposal with the support of the EuroLinux Alliance and some open source and free software programmers, academics, small business groups, and even a number of proprietary software developers.

The directive was eventually passed on September 24, 2003 in a heavily amended form that significantly limited the patentability of software in order to prevent the abuse of the software patent system and protect small software companies from the harmful effects of broad and trivial software patents. However, it was reversed by the Council of the European Union, resubmitted to the European Parliament after revision, and eventually rejected in July 2005.

In 2008, the FFII designated September 24 (the anniversary of the initial adoption of the directive) as World Day Against Software Patents and launched a global petition in support of stopping software patents worldwide.