Slashdot Mirror

Try here.

Scroll down to "Swedish trademark database" and click the link first.

Be warned that it's one of those websites that tries to put your browser to sleep.

But since you pointed out the paucity of my research, I went ahead and spent another 10 minutes on this. I found out that if you enter "Spridningskollen" in the box at:

https://was.prv.se/VarumarkesD...

you will, in fact, find out that the trademark was applied for on August 31st.

I know nothing about Swedish trademark law, but most countries are not amused by this sort of stunt.

You're welcome.

The current European Parliament members have learned what soft patents mean, and know their consequences.

Hence these guys are going to crawl back under their rock and try to make themselves forgotten until after the next elections.

That'd be my take on it, too.

Alternately it's just a PR move to get everyone to drop their guard so that the pro-sw crowd (aka MS) can try fast tracking it through some agriculture and fisheries committee or other unexpected venue. It'd be a clever trick to get suckered in to giving up just as we're about to finalize the victory. So, if it's the pro-swpatent crowd saying the debate is over, I'd recommend extreme caution.

It'd be very unwise to consider the debate over until even the very possibility of sw patents has a wooden stake in it and is buried upside down at a Crossroads with garlic and holy wafers in its mouth. One way to do it would be a re-affirmation of the 1974 European Patent Convention which, in Article 52, explicitly excludes "schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and programs for computers".

Currently there are parts of Europe which, rather than follow EU law, style themselves as a 51st state and take after US law instead. That occurs in spite of being member states in the EU and not in the US. Sweden, for example, is one which has a patent office promoting software patents. For that matter the European Patent Office is still granting (invalid) patents on software. Until these and the others actually start following EU law by refusing further patents on software and annulling any previously granted software patents, the danger is not reduced. If anything, complacency increases the risk.

Exactly. Since the CII (Computer-Implemented Inventions) directive (a.k.a. software patent directive) was voted down, there has been no harmonization between the countries. The EPC (European Patent Convention) forbids patents on software "as such", but in certain countries they are allowed if combined with a computer (just like in the US, IIRC). In Sweden, where I live, it appears that software patents are valid. Patent och Registreringsverket (the equivalent of the USPTO) states:

Vilka datorprogram kan patenteras?
När det gäller datorprogram får man inte patent på programmet i sig utan på kopplingen till den tekniska lösningen, alltså den funktion, metod eller process som blir resultatet av programmets körning i datorn.

Man kan även få patent på program som styr fysiska processer eller som behandlar fysiska signaler, eller program som styr kommunikation. Datorprogram som styr operativsystem kan patenteras.

Which roughly translates into:

Which computer programs can be patented?
Computer programs cannot themselves be patented, rather the patent covers the connection to the technical solution, that is the function, method or process that results from executing the program in the computer.

You can also patent programs that controls physical processes or (programs) that processes physical signals, or programs that controls communication. Computer programs that control operating systems can be patented.

So if they ever start selling Lindows in Sweden they can call it the Swedish name for windows

No, fonster (Swedish for "Windows") would be generic in Sweden. But I guess I could trademark fonster in the US.

And how did Microsoft get a trademark when X Windows was already being sold in Sweden by a number of UNIX vendors?

I don't know. Maybe X Windows wasn't trademarked in Sweden/Europe. Or the trademark holders failed to protect their trademark.

Also when did Microsoft get a trademark in Sweden?
1992 I guess.

You can check the web page for patent och registreringsverket which handles trademarks. Search here (javascript required). The search page is in Swedish.
"Lydelse" = Trademark text.
"Sok" = Search
"Aterstall" = Clear

Also note that a trademark is registered in classes. I couldn't find a list over what the class numbers mean though.

Also, if you go up a level and search for Windows it also turns up several with no registrant. Any idea what that means?

My Swedish is very rusty, coming mostly from listening to a co-worker's elderly relatives complaining (I infer) about their bodies, reading poorly translated man pages and math papers, second guessing the fish, and watching the muppet show. Did I say rusty? How about "virtually noexistent"?

-- MarkusQ

Microsoft has registered Windows as a trademark in Sweden, and there's also several registered EU trademarks for Windows: 000079681, 000327890, 001691963 (you can do a trademark search here).

Although a patent system does not exist in Finland or Sweden [...]

There is a patent system in Sweden, unless 'patent system' means something highly specific/technical of which I'm not aware. Patents in Sweden are handled by Patent och Registreringsverket.

Actually cats.info (one of the examples in the original post) was registered by Tre-Mag Sweden AB which publishes the porn magazine Cats. Since they also have a trademark for that name and since it doesn't say that it has to be a trademark registered in the USA to be eligible for registration, I really don't see why this would count as bogus.

More interestingly, there are four other trademark holders for the name Cats in Sweden alone (for products and services in other trademark classes) so there are probably at least a hundred other companies all over the world who might feel that they have the same right to the name as Tre-Mag...

Anyhow, it's good to see that the porn industry are still Internet pioneers. :-)

/J

The Swedish equivalent is Patent och registrerings verket. The site seems devoid of any useful statistics thought.