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EU Patent Examiners Warn Parliament Will Have "No Power"
zoobab writes "The Staff Union of the European Patent Organisation sent a letter to the President of the European Parliament, warning that after the EU accedes to the European Patent Convention, there is a risk that the European Parliament would be 'circumvented' as a legislator. The European Patent Organisation is in no way a model of democracy: national patent offices are in power, there is no parliament involved in the decision-making process, and diplomatic conferences are held behind closed doors. There are plans to create a central patent court in Europe, which would operate in a democratic vacuum, not counterbalanced by any legislative assembly, in particular not the European Parliament. Such a central patent court could also validate software patents via caselaw (as the German Supreme Court recently did with the Microsoft FAT patent). And Microsoft, IBM, and SAP are lobbying in Brussels not to reopen consideration of the software patent directive."
There's no question that the current setup, in which the European Patent Office only performs a unified examination of a patent application but doesn't really grant a single European patent, is suboptimal from the perspective of those taking out patents. It's also an inefficiency that patent litigation can currently only take place on a country-by-country basis (including invalidation, unless oppositions happens early enough so that the EPO itself could reject the patent application).
However, if an international construct such as the European patent system is made more efficient and powerful, then that increase in power and efficiency should be accompanied by an at least proportional increase in power of democratically elected lawmakers governing the same field of policy-making. That should be a governing principle regardless of whether hardware, software or other patents are at stake. The patent examiners' union raises that point and basically says that the exact opposite is happening from their point of view: more power and less control.
Or you know, you can just file an application at the ALREADY EXISTING European Patent Office.
http://www.epo.org/patents/Grant-procedure/Filing-an-application/European-applications.html
This isn't about application/grants ... this is about enforcement (and consequently patentability).
And this is not only difficult, but also expensive and an entry barrier for new technology movers and inventors.
While that is true, please consider the following scenario:
1. Create office with power, without responsibility, and without anyone in the bureaucratic machine who can question their decisions
2. Install own people (did I mention it's not an elected body?)
3. WELCOME BACK SOFTWARE PATENTS
At least the national patent offices have clearly defined authorities they report to. Do we really need more red tape to sync databases?
No, the main goal have always been further integration and democracy within the Union, however, certain groups who often complain that the EU is undemocratic refuse to let it become more democratic, i.e. Eurosceptics such as the British Conservative party or the UKIP, because apparently a democratic Union would undermine national sovereignty.
"Civis Europaeus sum!"
Patents will always be a double edged sword. A guy with a great idea can easily have it stolen by a large company in the same field with the ability to create and market the product much faster. Knock off companies become king. Think of an entire world full of unscrupulous chinese manufacturers forever cloning other people's products.
OTOH big companies with deep pockets can play the patent troll game far easier than in individual entrepreneur/inventor.
Ideally a patent provides a limited time period for inventors to profit from their idea, encouraging innovation while including a mechanism whereby these innovations can eventually pass into the public domain for the benefit of the general public.
The entire purpose of the EU was to reduce the crippling bureaucratic balkanization and get all the countries working from the same playbook. How can you expect a small country with, for example, no electronics manufacturing to have patent office expertise for that industry?
The big problem with the current issue isn't patents but the lack of checks and balances. The core idea of democracy is that every part of government has "civilian oversight".
I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.