News broke today about how Software Patents won’t be coming to the EU any time soon, so I’ve taken down the banner supporting the campaign against them. While this is good news, it’s only part of the story: the law rejected today would have regularised the way that patents on software and other computer-related technologies are managed across the EU; while this can be seen as a victory for the anti-patent lobby (despite positive spin (PDF) from the pro-lobby), it’s not the end of softare patents altogether. After all, with no EU-wide legislation there’s nothing stopping the powerful corporate interests in favour of software patents from campaigning in individual countries for similar legislation.