[Lilux-info] [Fwd: [Patents] Patents back on EU agenda]

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Patents] Patents back on EU agenda Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 05:42:21 +0100 From: Florian Mueller <fmueller.nosoftwarepatents(a)googlemail.com> To: <patents(a)aful.org> PATENTS BACK ON EU AGENDA Anti-software patent campaigner warns that the community patent project might give software patents a stronger legal basis in Europe Brussels (16 January 2006) - The Financial Times reports that EU internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy will today announce "one final effort" to establish an EU-wide community patent: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/6bfc7f6a-85e7-11da-bee0-0000779e2340.html McCreevy played a key role in the EU's recent push for software patents, which ended on July 6, 2005, when the European Parliament rejected a bitterly contested proposal by 648-32 votes. Anti-software patent campaigner Florian Mueller, who founded the NoSoftwarePatents.com Web site, issued a first warning in October that the EU's community patent project might legalize software patents "by the back door". Mueller now views the Commission's announcement of consultations with industry lobbyists as "a definitive indication that our camp has to take action again". The current proposal for an EU community patent regulation, on which the Council has been unable to reach agreement since 2000, contains a clause that the European Patent Office should "apply to the Community patent the case law which it has developed". Anti-software patent campaigners have long criticized the EPO for its case law. The EPO allows software to be patented under the pretext of a "technical contribution", which usually boils down to faster computation times, more economic storage of data, optimized network traffic, or novel ways to use input/output devices. Unless the aforementioned clause on case law were to be replaced with a "waterproof" exclusion of software from the scope of patentability, the judges at the European Court of Justice or a new Community Patent Court would be "extremely likely to follow the EPO's law-bending approach and declare US-style software patents legal in the EU", Mueller fears. He believes that it is "imperative for our movement to influence the new debate on the community patent on a timely basis, or else we would find it hard, if not impossible, to stop the avalanche". In his opinion, it is "a steep challenge" to ensure that a community patent law would simultaneously address the issue of the EPO's patent granting practice, "because many politicians believe that the community patent is an important measure from a competitiveness point of view, and won't like the all-or-nothing notion of having to solve two huge problems at one fell swoop". But, he adds, "defining what is patentable would be needed to really make Europe more competitive". Presently, the European patents that the EPO grants are effectively bundles of many national patents. The examination process is centralized at the EPO, but most of the total cost of a European patent is due to the need to provide multiple translations of the patent document, which some consider a competitive disadvantage versus the US patent system. A community patent would bring down the number of language versions required to a few or just one (English). Lower costs would likely result in an increased number of patent applications, and there are different opinions as to whether that would foster innovation or have the opposite effect. The community patent appears to be part of Microsoft's strategy for giving software patents a stronger legal basis in Europe. In an interview with the EU Reporter issue dated November 28, 2005, Microsoft EMEA chairman Patrick de Smedt said his company is "keen to have software patents on the European agenda", and the community patent project is mentioned in the same article (downloadable as PDF document from http://www.eureporter.co.uk/newspaper.php). NOTE: Florian Mueller founded the NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign in 2004 with the support of three corporate sponsors (1&1, Red Hat, MySQL AB), and managed it until March of 2005. He then gave his website to the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), the leading European pressure group that opposes the patentability of computer programs. Mueller has been nominated as one of the "top 50 most influential figures in intellectual property" by Managing Intellectual Property magazine, and as one of the 50 "Silicon Agenda Setters". His NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign received the "CNET Networks UK Technology Award" in the "Outstanding Contribution to Software Development" category, and the EU-focused newspaper European Voice lists him as the European "Campaigner of the Year 2005" (www.EV50.com) after he received more votes in a public poll than U2 frontman Bono and other candidates. CONTACT INFORMATION Florian Mueller fmueller.nosoftwarepatents(a)gmail.com phone +49-8151-21088 -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it. -Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US president, architect and author (1743-1826) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Serge Marelli, Luxembourg ----------------------------------------------------------------------