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EU Software Patents Delayed Again
Lord An writes "It seems the decision about software patents in Europe has been delayed again for at least a week (link in German). Once again we have to thank Poland that the corresponding item was removed from the A-list of the Council of Agriculture and Fisheries. Hopefully this delay will be enough that the opposition vs. the patents will finally get the upper hand." Non-German speakers might find it useful to plug that URL into the Fish.
what's with you guys - hurry it up, I can't RTFA !
The European Union is attempting to pass a Directive that will force many European governments to permit patents on software despite growing protests from software engineers and small European software companies. Opponents fear that software patents will stifle innovation and competition in their industry, increasing their legal costs, while leaving them at the mercy of large companies who have the resources to acquire large numbers of patents. The Directive is supported by trade groups dominated by large multinational software companies, along with national patent offices who generate revenue from patent applications. A patent is a fearsome weapon, not only does it prevent someone from copying an invention, it also prevents them from independently inventing the same thing. This means that you could spend your entire life sitting in a cave, with no contact with the outside world, and anything you invent could still infringe other people's patents. In contrast, a copyright only prevents other people from copying your work. If you copyright a poem and someone else, by chance, happens to write the same poem without copying yours, then they are not infringing your copyright.
The purpose of patents, indeed all forms of intellectual property, is to promote the arts and sciences. Patents achieve this by granting an inventor exclusive control over their invention for a limited time. In return, the inventor is required to disclose their invention so that after the limited time expires, it is freely available to the rest of society. Society benefits when this provides an incentive for inventors to invent, where otherwise they might not have bothered.
A patent isn't just granted on an idea for an invention, it can only be granted once you have a prototype, or at least the ability to teach someone how to build a prototype, this is known as a "teachable invention". Patents therefore motivate an inventor to take their idea and invest the time and money to develop it into a teachable invention. In return for this, and a small fee, inventors are granted a 20 year monopoly over their invention.
This monopoly is not granted without a price. Every invention builds on those that came before, yet for the duration of a patent nobody else can build on a patented invention without the permission of the inventor. This creates a cost for society, and other inventors. Patents work when the benefit to society of having the invention outweighs the cost of the inventor's monopoly over it.
In a field such as pharmaceuticals, a vast investment may be required to get from an idea for a new drug, to the drug itself. In this case, it is easy to see how a patent on this drug will benefit society if it provides sufficient motivation to the drug's inventor to make the investment required to invent it. Software, however, is very different. Getting from an idea to a prototype in software requires very little investment and risk. This is the great strength of software. Its why Bill Gates, a college drop-out, could build a multi-billion dollar company out of nothing but the ideas in his head. Its why Linus Torvalds could later sow the seeds of an operating system built by volunteers that would challenge that multi-billion dollar company.
Patents should not apply to software for the simple reason that they would do far more harm than good, harming creativity rather than promoting it. Software doesn't need patents, copyright is more than adequate to provide the incentive software engineers need to turn their ideas into software. The cost to society of a 20 year monopoly over a software invention will never be justified, because it is inconceivable that any software invention could require such a powerful incentive. The price for this monopoly is paid by other inventors, and so the effect is to stifle innovation, not to promote it.
Unfortunately software is not the only fie
The of Luxembourg council presidency explained itself after information from diplomat circles ready to shift the planned official verabschiedung of the disputed position of the Minister committee as the guideline over the patenting bar of "computer-implemented inventions" again around one week. Instead of of the agrarian and fishery advice on Monday in May the point of view fastened under troubles is therefore to be abgenickt on 31 January in the advice for general questions and external relations. From the further delay above all the proponents of a complete restart now nearly for three years of the running legislative procedure in the European Union parliament could profit. Once more made the Polish government pressure on the Luxemburger. Thus the advised point disappeared after information of German Ministry representatives at Friday noon of yesterday of the agenda of the agrarian advice. More than one week delay did not want to grant the council presidency Poland however. In the new entry country in the course of the week the European Union committee of the government had exerted itself seriously for a shift, since the position of Poland was not yet finally co-ordinated to the past advice point of view. The European Hightech branch federation EICTA, to which companies belong such as Microsoft, Nokia, SAP or Siemens, reacted disappointed to the time extension. The "uncertainty" for enterprises will now continue to persist still after the many months of the treatment of the guideline suggestion, was called it with EICTA. The industry needs the extended patent protection for genuine, software using inventions urgently. A speaker of the promotion association for a free Informationelle infrastructure (FFII) welcomed the grace period against it as "positively". Crucial now the further negotiations are in the European parliament to a way out of the festgefahrenen situation according to software patent opponents. In the constant back and forth the advice sees Florian Mueller, Manager of the campaign NoSoftwarepatents.com, an indication for the fact that the Minister committee begs "formally for a restart of the procedure". The delegates would have to accept this "invitation". This applies particularly to prominent union politicians in the European Union parliament, who had stated so far doubts against a new start, said Mueller. They could shift "the mortal blow" as a parliamentary group most powerful with distance now the "inexpressible" advice text. If the Minister committee at the end of should refer January actually publicly a rejecting position, one period up to the beginning of the then following Plenarwoche would remain for the parliamentarians on 21 February for requesting a new beginning. (Stefan Krempl)
The memories of a man in his old age are the deeds of a man in his prime - Floyd, Pink
No no no, that's not how it works. If you want to make a HHGTTG reference you should do it properly: You don't plug anything in the fish. You plug the fish in your ear, that's how it's done!
I know that with software patents you have to seed them properly before you can harvest them later, but can somebody explain to me what it is doing on the agenda of the council of agriculture and fisheries?
bash$
This was also reported on Friday in eWeek here.
You forgot the link.
Just
The biggest story here is the way the European Parliament and associated croonies keep on trying to get this directive through the backdoor without no reference to the rules, law or democratic society.
Fisheries and Agriculture? The people behind this must be offering big backhanders to all involved to push this through at all costs, that's all I can say.
But it's good news in whatever language :-)
Christian Engström, Former Member of the European Parliament 2009-2014 for The Pirate Party, Sweden
We already have patents for computer-implemented inventions in the UK. 20% of patents are for the above. Here's a few sentences on open source, even though your letter doesn't mention it. That's because we're sending you a boilerplate letter. The UK supports the EU Directive on software patents. We think UK innovators and users, especially small firms want software patents. There's no evidence that software patents will harm the industry. Not even in America. The EU Directive will only clarify the current law, not change it. UK Government did a consultation exercise in autumn 2000, which concluded that the status quo of having software patents is the best position. I'd never heard of this consultation. DTI is about the private sector. Nowhere in the letter does it reference my concern: the public sector.
I think that delaying and then defeating patents in Europe is the best opportunity that we have in the USA to get the subject revisited. There is a need to have some uniformity in patent laws throughout the world, or at least with our major trading partners; if we (or more accurately, Europeans) can get Europe to defeat software patents or at least demand that they truly be inventive and not the next logical step in programming (a la one click) then there will be a need to have the two systems brought closer together. If Europe stands opposed to them, and America (Adobe/Micro$oft) stands for them then hopefully they will be forced to compromise. Not that a compromise is a good solution for us but I believe a negotiation like this is the best hope/chance that we have at bringing our patent system in line with what our Founding Fathers had in mind: "To Promote the Useful Arts and Sciences". As long as US politicians are bought and paid for by the big corporations there is no other way that this issue will come up for discussion in either the House or the Senate.
Restore America: Dr. Ron Paul for President!
Due to the general election in Denmark the socialist party has withdrawn it's support for the software patent directive and demanded that the current government blocks the decision at least untill after the election on february 8.
A rt icleID=26766
Effectively, this means that if the minister of economy votes in favor of the directive on january 31, he will be forced to withdraw his vote when he returns.
Article (in danish):
http://www.computerworld.dk/default.asp?Mode=2&
The EU process for creating and ratifying a law is long winded - a simplified version (likely to contain errors - there is a proper long winded description at the official EU website but I can't be bothered looking it up) is that the comission will usually suggest a law, whereupon the parliament will discuss it and suggest changes and vote on it, after which the council will debate it and vote upon it, at which point it will go back to the parliament, giving parliament a second chance to reject it and force a reconsideration or restart the process.
The reason the council has the power it has is that the council represents the national parliaments, and because the EU is not a state/country or a federation it does not have real law making power itself. The EU can NOT create binding laws for the member states. It can issue directives requiring the member states to create laws or face sanctions.
The council members can be directed by national parliaments using whatever processes the member states prefer, while the national parliaments have no such authority over the EU parliament, and hence the EU parliament CAN'T be given control over the law making process without a dramatic shift in the power balance towards the EU.
Allowing the EU parliament to effectively make law (as opposed to now, when it can prevent a directive from being passed, which doesn't prevent the member states from unilaterally creating a law) would likely require ammendments to the custitutions of most EU member states since it would involve giving up sovereignty. Under the current process, on the other hand, the governments are only bound to treaties which, though costly to do, they can pull out of, and which retain the national parliaments sovereign rights to pass laws on behalf of their citizens.
In essence, the council is a result of the process by which the EU has been created as a loose confederation where the EU government is subordinate to the member states' governments. If the EU at some point becomes a federation, it would be logical to remove the council, or transfer large parts of the power to the parliament, but that's not a very likely prospect for many years.
There should be more people active in this discussion.
I think it dimishes our democracys (in europe) if we allow for the Europe Council circunvent the vote and opinio of the democratically elected European Parlament.
There should be enough geeks * near the strings of power to make those in power aware of their needs.
If that is not the case, we have to make enough noise until we are heard and the European Parlament Directives get aproved
* I use geek in the thecnological savvy meaning.
I'm trying to get modded "Interesting Flamebait Informative and Insightful Redundant Troll" *-* Please Help *-*
It's a lot more than that now.
The EU member states are subject to EU laws, there's economic union thanks to the Euro. This also dictates taxes and monetary policy.
"Thank you for your letter, which I read with interest, and the points
you made. The Labour MEPs' position on software patents is reflected in
the amendments we tabled and voted for in the Parliament's report on the
Commission proposal on the patentability of computer-implemented
inventions. In short, the position remains:
* No US-style patenting of software.
* Software as such, must not be patented. No patenting of
business methods or "general ideas"
* Opensource software must be allowed to flourish and the
Commission must ensure that this Directive does not have any adverse
effect on opensource software and small software developers.
* Patents and the threat of litigation must not be used as an
anti-competitive weapon to squeeze out small companies.
The Member States and European Commission will negotiate with Parliament
on our amendments and we hope we can achieve an outcome which will limit
and restrict the patentability of computer-implemented inventions.
As you are aware the European Patent Office has already handed down some
40,000 software patents and without an EU directive we could end up
drifting towards extending patentability to business methods, algorithms
or mathematical methods, as is the case in the US.
Labour MEPs are not voting to introduce software patents but to limit
patents."
It seems that the right time has come to deliver the Thank Poland letter with all the signatures which have been confirmed so far; right now the most likely date appears to be Thursday this week (January 27). I plan to fly to Warsaw for this, and we'll try to get some significant media coverage. If you think you might be able to help with this, please drop me an email at nb@norbert.ch
Under construction: swpat politics overview article