Debating over the unitary patent

The integration of software in the contemporary world is evidently important since it is incorporated in every existent technology (whether that is realized or not); a fact makes the understanding of software, its technology and its context crucial. At the same time, during the last decades the growing importance of information and technology shed light to the significance of the forms of ownership provided by Intellectual Property rights; under which the technology of software is also protected. This thesis focuses on software patents (as a form of ownership) and the implications that the unitary patent (introduced at the end of 2012 as a reform of the European patent system) could possibly have for software development. For that purpose, two opposing discourses are examined through textual analysis of their discursive production; and their ideological roots are identified and compared. The discussion that derives from the findings (under the prism of hegemony and the theories of technology and software) is very enlightening for further research. This research argues that the more technology and in this case software is stripped off its cultural reference and is not the outcome of an inclusively democratic procedure the more the discussion will be relocated towards its democratization.