Currently, software and human behaviour (business rules) cannot be patented in Europe. I think, this is good. It allows me to write software (and give it away) without the need to spend some months for patent investigations and money for legal advice. Part of the European Commission now plans to introduce patent practices known from the US in Europe. They include patents for stand-alone software, algorithms and human practices. A group of European software developpers and companies have joint forces to prevent this. We want to file a petition to the European Parliament. If you are interested and want to help, please visit: URL:http://petition.eurolinux.org/index.en.html Dieter