It's more complicated[1] that but essentially there are no software patents in EU or Europe. Sadly the EU Commission have been trying to get them into legislation for over a decade[2]. It's fits perfectly with their highly protectionist authoritarian centralised control and regulation agenda.

Having worked in companies it's immaterial anyway as big companies with a USA based vehicle will still be patent trolled if they do business there. Seen it happen

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patents_under_the_E...

[2] http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//...