Open source migration of the municipality of Munich will proceed
August 25: Since June, numerous media sources reported that the Open
Source migration project of the municipality of the German city Munich
would be stopped. This was supposedly due to the hypothetical
infringement of patents following the likely introduction of software
patents in the EU, supported by the German government. The migration
process was called into question, as the basis client that was to be
introduced for 14.000 employees, could result in as many as 50
infringements of patents.
In a press dialogue on the 11^th of August 2004, the mayor of Munich,
Christian Ude, clarified that the municipality will proceed on schedule
with its migration process. Only the bidding for the desktop basis
client was deferred for about a week.
However, the city will commission a legal study that will clarify the
differences between the guidelines for software patents from the
European parliament and the draft text of the European Council of
Ministers. The municipality of Munich calls for a clear formulation of
the guidelines and demands a clear legal certainty from the German
Federal Government.
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http://europa.eu.int/ida/en/document/3222/5581