Software Patent Debate Over in Europe For Now?

Anonymous EPA writes "The website of the European Patent Office is running a story about a recent agreement not to revive the debate on software patents in Europe nor to promote new legislation. To quote: 'All speakers welcomed unequivocally the opportunity to discuss the issue at a high level and made clear that a new CII (computer-implemented inventions) debate followed by legal modifications was neither necessary nor desirable.'"

Comments

Patently wrong

[Kaseijin]

You can patent the click (Amazon) The one-click patent is stupid, but not quite that stupid.

You can patent the letter i (Apple) No, you can't. It conceivably could be trademarked, but it hasn't been.

You can patent a number (AACS) No, you can't. AACS LA claimed that the key was a access control circumvention device, which is illegal under the DMCA.

You can patent software written by someone else, and then sue them for it. (Microsoft, Linux) The exclusive right to implement the invention is the essence of a patent. Also, Microsoft haven't sued; that would require them to identify the patents allegedly infringed.

crawling under a rock

[SgtChaireBourne]

More like, the bastards tested the water to see if yet another attempt could be successful this time and saw they didn't have a whisper.

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.

Re:Patents aren't bad...

[bedonnant]

It seems to me that you are a victim to the illusion that anything important that happens, happens in the US. Other parts of the world develop stuff as well, you know. Especially Europe.
and as far as i know (which may not be much), h.264 was developped in an international context, by the ITU-T and MPEG, a subgroup of ISO/IEC. The "I" in each acronym stands for international. The ITU-T is actually based in Switzerland. It doesn't sound like the US alone developped it, and that now Europe wants to steal hard-working americans' money to use it.

Oh no it isn't

[Woodpeckeruk]

The debate may be over for now at the European (i.e. EU) level, but it rages on in the UK, with recent decisions from the UK Intellectual Property Office ruling that computer program product claims are not allowable. See the following for more details:

http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2007/07/fallout-from- aerotelmacrossan.html
http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2007/06/no-computer-p rogram-claims-at-uk-ipo.html

The EPO, however, have said that they don't even want to address the questions:

http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2007/06/epo-please-st op-asking-questions.html

The debate will rumble on for a while yet.

Re:No debate, thank you

[Weedlekin]

"They would much rather have EPO create new case law without debate and without those pesky MPs."

The European Courts don't use an English Common Law system of precedents, so so there is no such thing as "new case law". ECJ Judges will often use prior decisions as a basis for their opinions, but are in no way obliged to, so the fact that one group of judges interpreted laws in a particular way doesn't mean that a different set of judges will do so. One can therefore have a situation where one software patent is upheld while another similar one gets rejected on the grounds that software patents aren't valid due to the fact that two panels of judges interpret the spirit of the existing laws differently.