Wolfgang Wopperer
Shareholder of mindmatters

The patentability of software, like it will be possible with the current draft of the European Council, would have serious consequences for our company, as we are a provider of individual software: We would have to make extensive patent inquiries before each of our customer projects, even for the most trivial functions. In a short time this would lead to projects which would be far too expensive, even without taking into account the license fees for patented functions. Our company would not be competitive any more.

But we are not alone - every service provider who is developing individual software would have the same problems: no customer could afford individual software. Winners are only a few manufacturers of standard software - the market would not be lead by the companies with the best solutions, the market would be lead by the companies with the largest power.