Slashdot Mirror
France To Launch a National Patent Troll
zoobab writes "France is creating a state sponsored patent fund, FranceBrevets, which primary focus will be to sponsor, acquire and license patents in the ICT (read software patents) sector. The patent fund is at the initiative of the minister of Research, Valérie Pécresse, the Ministry of Industry, Energy and digital economy, Eric Besson. The primary target of the fund is to collect licenses on those patents, which is already seen in France as the biggest patent troll of the country. France is also supporting the European Unitary Patent, which is seen by many at the final attempt to validate software patents in Europe."
France is also supporting the European Unitary Patent, which is seen by many at the final attempt to validate software patents in Europe.
Correction : this will only be the final attempt if it succeeds. Otherwise, stand by for many more.
The whole world witnesses the stagnation to software development caused by the incessant court battles about software patents in the USofA and then they want a similar system!
But then most of them are probably lawyers by trade so they see opportunities...
Lets hope other nations like the Germans can stop this nonsense taking hold in EU legislation.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
Of course not, but tyranny is tyranny, and tyrants act like tyrants. When you give them control, they grab for more. Europe and the US are both heading down this slope, which will have a bad end if not reversed.
-- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits