The european council adopted the software patent directive,
now that's being sold to big companies. The directive has been redacted by Microsoft and other corporations.

See
Software patent directive adopted on ZDNet UK.

There are other shits going on out there indeed, but it's quite easy for corporations to patent ideas these days. When will they be able to patent ideas that are inside folk's brains, as it happens in the US.

Tens of thousands of software patents have been granted illegaly in europe these last years; the patent office doesn't give a shit about granting patents illegaly and is just expecting the law to change.

Congrats to everybody involved.