Slashdot Mirror
EU Software Patent War Ignites Again
pieterh writes "ZDNet UK has a detailed article on the heating-up of the software patent debate in Europe. A new motion before the European Parliament calls for a harmonised patent court (EPLA) that would be able to enforce software patents across Europe. This comes just 15 months after the EP rejected the infamous Computer Implemented Inventions directive." From the article: "Patents on software are formally disallowed under the European patent system, but are routinely granted by the European patent office, according to critics. They are currently difficult to enforce in many EU member states, something critics say would be changed by the failed software patent directive, and now by the EPLA. Software patents are generally considered to add to the legal costs of large enterprises, as well as creating a hostile legal environment for smaller software businesses and open source projects."
ZDNet UK has a detailed article on the heating-up of the software patent debate in Europe. A new motion before the European Parliament calls for a harmonised patent court (EPLA) that would be able to enforce software patents across Europe.
Yes, because clearly the best solution isn't to simply fix the law, but to create an entirely new governmental bureacracy.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
From the article:
In rebuttal, the three groups have filed a motion calling for "balance between the interests of patent holders and the broader public interest in innovation and competitive markets"
Sad, isn't it, when the groups opposing this are calling for a "balance" between patent holders and the greater public good.
Surely, the whole point of patents was "the broader public interest in innovation and competitive markets" ?
So how can McCreevy and co. get away with opposing "the broader public interest in innovation and competitive markets", the will of our elected EU politicians, and the wishes of by far the majority of the population who have expressed an interest in the matter ?
The enormous cost (3million EUROS) of litigating any patent dispute means small businesses simply cannot benefit from having patents when a large company infringes their patents . We absolutely do not want software patents because they are harmful to innovation in our own businesses. Indeed, we demand any attempt to introduce them in Europe is completely rejected. Two years ago, over 200,000 small businesses in Europe signed a petition to the European Commission totally rejecting the idea of introducing software patents in Europe, and totally rejecting the idea of harmonising legal processes in a way that might support software patents.
I think it's safe to say most Slashdotters prefer a form of government where they have a voice, and this probably means most of us favor some form of liberal democracy. Well, Wendell Philips said it best when he described the price of liberty as "eternal vigilance". There will always be forces in the world trying to subvert liberty to serve their own ends, and this means that there must always be people who will stand up for what is right.
I realize this is kind of a sappy/idealistic post, but, um, I think there's some measure of truth here.
For example, if patent office A says that something is obvious, but patent office B in another nation claims that it isn't
The answer is you sign a "free-trade" treaty to "synchronize" your "intellectual property" laws with the United States. Then you just do whatever the Americans tell you.
You work for a law firm--an "intellectual law" firm--writing patents.
So basically you are a flunky who makes a living from the patent industry. That explains your hysteria: terror. Wouldn't it be horrible if we were free to think? Don't think about it before asking your masters at the law firm.
If you want your life to be different, live it differently.
I believe that's rather how the whole mess started in the US- and as you might expect, some douche bag lawyer started interpreting this to mean that software *itself* was patentable. The momentum started building, the USPTO was making a nice chunk of change on patent fees, so really didn't see any impetus to change, and suddenly, we were left with something that is completely out of control. And now that there are established and entrenched interests, fixing the problem will an order of magnitude more difficult.
I'm sorry... this just doesn't compute. Allowing people to COPY ideas is now equivalent to "creative work"???
Yeah, because all creative work just pops out of nothingness, without building upon previous ideas. Sorry, Google - the idea of a program that indexes web pages is patented. Please wait 50 years until Altavista patent expires...
Once in my life I felt proud to be Polish - it was when we blocked the issue of software patents.
It looks like we have won the battle, but the war will continue as long as there is overload of bureacracy in EU and moloch corporations to be lobbying.
Personally, being a Linux user (perhaps not the most advanced around, but at least trying) I shiver at the tought of software patents being introduced and what effect this might have on our distributions. No left-click, no double-click, no <insert_your_favourite_nix_feature_here>?
I do hope this issue will be bounced back again. For the sake of us all.