Microsoft

Weakened by the global financial crisis and American rivals who continue to acquire the Continent's best companies, Europe's software sector is calling on local governments to take urgent measures.  A recently released annual ranking of Europe's Top 100 software companies  found that the mean increase in turnover for Europe's software companies in 2008 was 3%, down sharply from 10.3% in 2008. The survey is seen as a key index of the industry's health on the European level.Read more

Despite the global economic slowdow E-conomic, a Danish software-as-a-service company, is forecasting annual growth of  up to 45% in 2009 as it continues to gain traction across Europe. E-conomic is just one of 25 start-ups that will present to 60 foreign venture capitalists during an August 25-27  tour of Denmark, a country  with strengths  in software for small and medium sized businesses, clean technology and mobile services.
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Richard A. Jefferson, an American-born pioneer in plant genetic engineering, is using $3 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to make it easier to search patents globally and share information between researchers. His Initiative for Open Innovation, which aims to help reduce hunger and disease, was launched July 14 at the United Nations' Conference on Intellectual Property and Public Policy in Geneva. 
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Microsoft is spinning out its Software Licensing and Protection Services unit, forming an independent Dublin-based company called InishTech. Created through collaboration between Microsoft’s IP Ventures program and the Enterprise Ireland trade association, InishTech will be run by veterans of one-time Irish dotcom star Baltimore Technologies, a now defunct Internet security company.
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