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EU's Unitary Software Patent Challenged At the Belgian Constitutional Court
zoobab writes The Unitary Patent for Europe is being challenged at the Belgian Constitutional Court. One of the plaintiffs, Benjamin Henrion, is a fifteen-year campaigner against software patents in Europe. He says: "The Unitary Patent is the third major attempt to legalize software patents in Europe. The captive European Patent Court will become the Eastern District of Texas when it comes to software patent disputes in Europe. As happened in America, the concentration of power will force up legal costs, punish small European companies, and benefit large patent holders."
This is an early warning sign of encroaching European federalism. Your grand children will think of themselves as Europeans, pay homage to that government, and turn to it for legislation rather than France, or Germany, or Luxumburg, the New York, California, and Rhode Island of Europe.
What state do you live in? "I live in United Kingdom!"
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Software patents are explicitly not allowed in US either. It was the US patent court that after it was established as being outside the normal courts that unilaterally decided to allow software patents. That is what people are afraid will happen in Europe.
Patent trolls are only part of the problem, yes they do go after big companies with big pockets where possible but those big companies also keep massive "war chests" of patents to attack other companies both big and small to keep competition out of the market. Just look at the smartphone patent wars between Nokia, Motorola, Microsoft & Apple. Patents as a whole need a major rethink, yes they do serve a purpose but only when they deal with a unique idea and are granted for a limited time only (IE not a half century). Someone who builds a company from the ground up to make a product (lets say a fork) should be able to laugh out of their office any lawyer who stops in claiming that they own the "idea" for the product in question (a instrument with between 2 and 50 pointy bits at the end of a handle or grip engineered to fit in the human hand and intended for moving food from a dish, plate or any other surface into the mouth). Most software patent and a significant number of standard patents now fall into this disturbingly obvious category.
The whole point of the patent system is to tax the market.
It's that simple. All the rest is smoke and mirrors. We filed our appeal in Belgium because we know, in Flanders, how language can be used as a political tool. Here, the use of French, English, and German, suppresses dissent and appeal. It is already extraordinarily expensive to defend against a patent suit. The larger the court, the more it costs. I showed in 2007 using the EPO's own figures that specialized courts cost 4x more than courts that deal in all matters including patents.
This adds to an extraordinary burden on those trying to make products, and a downhill fight for patent owners. You think the Microsoft tax on Android is exceptional or unique? No, it's the Future According the the Patent System. The cost of production falls to zero, and the cost of licensing fills the gap, and the price to the market remains flat.
Language is a weapon, in this case.
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To be fair, there's no conflict of interest here. His interests are very clear. Patent attorneys make their money from patent disputes. The Unitary Patent is fantastic news for such people. It gives them larger clients willing to pay higher prices for pan-EU monopolies.
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