ACTA has been smashed in the EU probably for the same reasons SOPA was smashed in the US. People rose up and politicians were too shy to vote against the will of an informed public. If we wish to smash prospects of software patents in Europe we will need to inform the public and by extension politicians too. The unitary patent is the latest manifestation of a threat to EU patent law and according to this informative site dedicated to the subject, a vote on the unitary patent has been postponed. Quoting the report:
Monday July 2nd, 2012, the European Parliament has postponed the plenary vote of the regulation on the unitary patent, that was foreseen for Wednesday. This postponement comes from the European Council decision to delete articles 6-8 from the regulation, preventing any control from the CJEU. The text is now back in Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) of the European Parliament. Members of JURI should take this opportunity to fix the core of the text, to remove legal uncertainties which are still included, and doing so, to guarantee the integration of the European patent system within th EU legal and institutional framework.