http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,17741,00.html. At the moment software-patents in Europe are not legalized yet, although around 30.000 were accepted. The article mentions prior-art which possibly will not exist in the new european patent law. Until now we still have a chance that these patents will not be legalized in Europe. For further information see: http://swpat.ffii.org/ (multilingual) or http://patinfo.ffii.org/ (German).
I think that should be a priority for all free software users/developers now in Europe. Go write your country's Europarliament members now, and inform them about this.
Best regards,
Chema.