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[FYI] Software patents: will Europe roll over for the multinationals?
- To: debate@fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] Software patents: will Europe roll over for the multinationals?
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>
- Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 10:19:22 +0200
- Comment: This message comes from the debate mailing list.
- Organization: NONE
- Sender: owner-debate@fitug.de
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/1/13942.html
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Software patents: will Europe roll over for the multinationals?
By: Graham Lea
Posted: 12/10/2000 at 13:38 GMT
Software patents could become the kiss-of-death for many software
developers, because it is becoming impossible to write a program
without a serious risk of falling foul of some patent - frequently,
an undeserved and opportunist one. The threat is also grave for many
smaller businesses in Europe. They could easily be threatened by out-
of-the-blue demands for patent licensing fees for their software, or
for some process on their Internet site.
At a well-attended meeting sponsored by French MEP Gilles Savary and
arranged by the Eurolinux Alliance at the European Parliament in
Brussels this week, attention was drawn to new moves in Europe to
legalise software patents. In Europe there exist two totally
independent bodies with responsibility for legal issues connected
with patents: the European Union set up by the Treaty of Rome and now
having 15 members, and the European Patent Office (EPO) set up by the
Munich Convention and having 19 members.
[...]
The ponderous EU, with three of the European Commission directorates
involved in the patents issue as well as the two co-legislators (the
European Parliament and the Council of Ministers) that superintend
it, has been threatening a directive (as European laws are called) on
software patents, but has been too slow and now accepts that its
directive will not appear until after the EPO meeting. The EU does
have a champion in enterprise and information society commissioner
Erkki Liikanen, who said in an email read at the Brussels meeting
(yes, he replies to his own email): "I am absolutely against the US
patent practice in this field" and is urging internal market
commissioner Frits Bolkestein to arrange a consultation about the
EPO's plans.
[...]
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