The EU also has an opportunity to overtake the United States in software advances if the software patent issue is turned down. Software development in the United States has several problems. Some of them are:

• Non-compete clauses that are extreme due to the size and reach of some companies. Thankfully at least California restricts this to the term of employment. Software is so important to the world's operation that this is like limiting blacksmiths or metalworkers in earlier time periods. What if Da Vinci's works were locked away, even today?
• Litigation that can destroy a company, product, and for people not protected by a corporation: lives. The penalty for using an idea someone else patented, regardless of where you got the idea or if you had knowledge of the patent, is so severe an individual developer can lose everything.
• Expenses revolving entirely around intellectual property law. Lawyers, entire legal departments focused on IP, etc.
• "Paraphrasing becomes plagiarism." Because ideas can be implemented differently, the idea itself is patented. All implementations become subject. Things we have accepted as the best way for doing things, e.g. 2x4 frames for houses or wheel axels, become extremely expensive in the software world.
• The development of entities whose only purpose in life is to capitalize on intellectual property forever, providing no value to society and draining resources from others.
• A legal system that encourages people to not look for ideas from other places. Those ideas may be patented and once you've contaminated your brain with those ideas, you are liable.

If the EU rejects software patents, software development in the EU suddenly has a freedom akin to the personal freedom the United States Constitution symbolizes. The opportunity for the EU to become a the leader in technological innovation and development will be a lot greater.

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