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he decision means that the draft has lost a majority in favour, and now falls short by 16 votes.

The Polish cabinet decided that it could not support the directive drawn up by the EU Council of Ministers as it did not rule out the possibility of patenting software or business methods. Poland was not prepared to put its weight behind the directive without 'unambiguous regulations' to prevent this.

Lacking a qualified majority, the draft goes back to the Council which will have to come up with a new draft to put before the European Parliament next month. However, a ruling on

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software patents is becoming increasingly unlikely as the Council is currently led by the Netherlands. In July the Dutch government changed its vote from supporting the Council's draft to one of abstention.

Wladyslaw Majewski, president of the Internet Society of Poland, said: 'The questionable compromise that the EU Council reached in May was the biggest threat ever to our economic growth, and to our freedom of communication. The desire of the patent system and the patent departments of certain large corporations must never prevail over the interests of the economy and society at large.'

Opponents feared that software patents in Europe would stifle innovation which might run the risk of infringing someone's intellectual property.

New member countries from Eastern Europe such as Poland have high numbers of citizens with high-level IT skills. Governments there are concerned that their nascent software development industries might be badly damaged by the introduction of a patent system. They fear that the directive might lead to the kind of legal morass similar to the US, where it is possible to patent such ideas as the presses of buttons on devices.