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Stop European Software Patents (Again)
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| It is now over three years since the European Parliament threw out a
| controversial bill that would have brought in software patents.
|
| It was a victory of sorts for those trying to preserve some sanity in the
| world of computing, but only a partial and temporary one. Those in favour of
| intellectual monopolies are hardly going to give up, and already have a
| number of irons in the fire that they will doubtless deploy in due course.
|
| In preparation for that day, people on the other side are beginning to
| mobilise their forces...
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http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?RSS&BlogId=14&EntryId=1179
Recent:
Under the Radar: Two Tales From the Secret Life of Patents
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| During the impassioned debate over a proposed European directive on software
| patents, opponents of software patents mounted a graphic demonstration of the
| problem, entitled the Patented European Webshop. The website showed that
| despite official proscription of patents on "computer programs as such" in
| Europe, patents were nonetheless granted for common website functions. This
| propaganda coup elicited anxiety among small businesses and played an
| important in defeating the directive, which would have legitimized those
| patents.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-kahin/under-the-radar-two-tales_b_115022.html
Recent:
FSF: Urgent: Send comments to USPTO opposing software patents
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| Tell The United States Patent and Trademark Office that software and business
| method patents should not be part of the EU-US patent treaty.
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http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-69124/fsf:urgent:send-comments-to-uspto-opposing-software-patents
Term Extension “will damage Commission’s reputation”, top legal advisers tell
Barroso
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| Today, the leading European centres for intellectual property research have
| released a joint letter to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso,
| enclosing an impact assessment detailing the far reaching and negative
| effects of the proposal to extend the term of copyright in sound recordings.
| [...] “This Copyright Extension Directive, proposed by Commissioner Mccreevy,
| is likely to damage seriously the reputation of the Commission..."
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http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/06/18/term-extension-will-damage-commissions-reputation-top-legal-advisers-tell-barroso/
[ffii] McCreevy wants to legalise Software Patents via a US-EU patent treaty
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| Brussels, 13 May 2008 -- European Commissioner McCreevy is pushing for a
| bilateral patent treaty with the United States. This Tuesday 13 May in
| Brussels, White House and European representatives will try to adopt a
| tight roadmap for the signature of a EU-US patent treaty by the end of
| the year. Parts of the proposed treaty will contain provision on
| software patents, and could legalise them on both sides of the Atlantic.
|
| "TEC talks are the current push for software patents. The US want to
| eliminate the higher standards of the European Patent Convention. The
| bilateral agenda is dictated by multinationals gathered in the
| Transatlantic Economic Business Dialogue (TABD). When you have a look
| who is in the Executive Board of the TABD, you find not a single
| European SME in there", says Benjamin Henrion, a Brussels based patent
| policy specialist.
|
| The Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) which comprises EU and US high
| level representatives put a substantive harmonisation of patent law on
| its agenda. Substantive patent law covers what is patentable or not. The
| attempt to impose the low US standards on Europe via the Substantive
| Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) process utterly failed at the World
| Intellectual Property Organisation. Also progress in the WIPO B+
| subgroup (without development nations) could not be reached.
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http://lwn.net/Articles/282000/
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