Very bad news. According to CoCo blog, "The European Commission has denied a restart of the Software Patent Directive despite a request by the European Parliament." A "restart" here meant taking the Directive back to square one. Now we're on square two.

How did this happen? Says Florian Mueller of NoSoftwarePatents.com, "A wannabe Napoleon who heads the Commission and a Microsoft puppet that runs the DG (directorate general) in charge have decided to negate democracy."

Update: eWeek: "The European Commission has turned down the request that a controversial IT patenting proposal be thrown out, the latest twist in the European Union's software patents drama. The decision gives the go-ahead to send the proposal through to the next stage of the legislative process."

Update #2: Much more at Groklaw.