EU & US Patent "Syncing"

Christian Treczoks writes "Software patents are threatening Europe, too. The EC said "we want software patents to harmonize with the US", but the public - private persons and small to medium businesses - objected. So they made an "Analysis" of the replies. Effectively, 91% are against patenting software, but, as the majority of the proponents are important business figures, it's a draw. " Mmmm...corporate interests. "Fun".

Comments

Tell the commision what you think here:

[Coolumbus]

Use this link: http://www.forum.europa.eu.int/Public/irc/markt/so ftpat/newsgroups?n=forum

For myself I think that some sotware patents are just plain silly. What about the amazon one click buy patent, that is just stupid. (Not really differnt from pressing the coke button on a vending machine.)

I think the problem is that the people that looks trough the patent applications in some cases have no clue on what they are reading. Hence a large number of stupid patents slip trough. Did you hear about that Russian compay that managed to patent the use of a regular bottle?

One idea would be to make all patent applications public availabe, that way anyone could send the patent officials their input if they thought the patent was faulty. Only problem with this approch would be if a patent didn't go trough because of some minor detail, and sombody precived this and send in another application. But that would really be a minor problem in contrast to what's happening right now.

The decision seems already made

[OWJones]

Merely reading the executive summary, it seems that the commission has already sided in favor of software patents. This is probably a combination of the influence of the pro-patent side, the somewhat neutral or negative view of open source advocates, and potentially immature responses on the part of open source and free software advocates. We could definitely learn some lessons on how not to advocate our position in the future.

At the same time the review appears to have a very negative view of the anti-patent side. Opposition is limited to a three or four word summary (at best), and the Eurolinux coalition's work is somewhat summarily dismissed as a "petition" (quotes from original document). And for chrissake's people, when writing to an important review like this, don't resort to childish tactics like "Micro$oft"; it just gives the other side opportunity to point out (possibly correctly, at times) what a childish bunch those open source freaks are.

Overall, I'd like to applaud EuroLinux for organizing the petition. In the grand scheme of things it may not have made that much of a difference, but we do need to keep trying.

-jdm

probably won't matter anyway...

[Frymaster]

the whole issue of cross-border patents is probably going to be moot in 10 years anyway as the TRIPS council of the WTO (Trade Related Intellecutal Property council of the the World Trade Organization if you don't know your TLA's) is going to lead to a "harmonization" with US law on just about all aspects of intellecutal property anyway.

the official info is here
a good example of how TRIPs can be a Bad Thing is here
dense analysis in small font size is here

don't like how any of that sounds? fight it. come to kanaskis g8 2002. info here