European Parliament Rejects Software Patents

Earlier today, the European Parliament rejected a proposal that would have permitted software patents. This was a near unanimous decision with a 648 to 14 vote. This is a significant victory for small companies, including open source companies, against so-called "patent trolls" and patent monopolists. Companies including MySQL, Oracle, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo! as well as thousands of individuals enlisted through the FFII fought to keep this law from passing.

More press coverage here:
eWeek: EU Rejects Software Patents Proposal
Bloomberg: European Parliament Rejects Patents
VNU: Open source victory in EU software patent row
NY Times: European Parliament Fails to Agree on Patents
BBC News: Software Patent Bill Thrown Out