The unified patent litigation system (UPLS) - a back door to software patents in Europe - may be on its deathbed

The Unified Patent Litigation System (UPLS) threatens Free software in Europe; Microsoft gets away with deceiving to pass this as law and it harms EU innovation in the process

"After their failure to introduce software patents in Europe directly through two directives, then through the community patent and then finally through the «European Patent Litigation Agreement» (EPLA), the European Commission has come up with a new way to legalize software patents: the «United Patent Litigation System» (UPLS)..."

"Brussels, 12 May 2009 -- The European Commission is pushing for software patents via a centralised trusted patent court that would be created with the United Patent Litigation System (UPLS), an international treaty that would remove national courts. This court system would be shielded against any review by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

" The future of software patents in Europe is uncertain. The Software Patent Directive was rejected by the European Parliament on the 6th of July 2005, after seven years of campaigning by people in FSFE and other organisations - most notably, one of our associate organisations, FFII. This was a monumental victory and displays the legislative competence of the Free Software community. However, the struggle is not over. Information about the current status of software patents in the EU can be found in this November 2007 blog entry: Do software patents exist in the EU?

The software patent issue is likely to return via initiatives such as the Community Patent or the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA)..."

Patent advocates, large successful businesses, and politicians are so enthusiastic about the patenting of software that it’s hard to accept arguments from people like the FFII and Free Software Foundation who claim that the software industry simply does not need software patents and would be far better off without them.

Criticism of the United Patent Litigation System is published to serve as a cautionary note

"End Software Patents, a project working toward the elimination of software patents, was launched today. The ESP project will initially focus on two approaches: 1) assisting corporations that choose to challenge software patents in the courts and at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on the basis that patents for software and designs with no physically innovative step have no legal validity, and 2) public education aimed at passing laws to protect software from patent law. [...] In a separate announcement today, ESP released its first report on the current state of software and business method patents. The report covers the economic impact of software patents, including the $11.4 billion that U.S. businesses waste each year on software patent litigation.

On the White House's official website for petitioning the government, there is a petition to return sanity to the US software industry by overturning software patents.