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[Esp-action-alert] ESP launches en.swpat.org: A Wiki for Anti-Software Patent
Campaigns
,----[ Quote ]
| End Software Patents today launched en.swpat.org, a wiki to document the case
| against software patents. Over 100 articles have already been started to give
| an idea of the scope and structure of the wiki.
`----
http://campaigns.fsf.org/pipermail/esp-action-alert/2009-May/000002.html
Recent:
Red Hat pitches software-patents-free Europe
,----[ Quote ]
| Red Hat is today expected to join others in making the case against the
| enforcement of patents in software across the European Union.
|
| The company is expected to submit an 11-page report to regulators, which
| makes the case that patents in software damages innovation in software.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/30/red_hat_europe_patents/
Farmers, Politicians, Free Software Fans Demonstrate Against Patents
,----[ Quote ]
| Stallman warned against the threat patents pose to free farming and free
| software engineering, and heavily criticised the EPO for its grant practice.
| He called it an “evil and malicious organisation” Europeans should try to get
| rid off and should in the first place try “to stop treating every EU
| institution as if it was sacred and inscrutable.”
`----
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/04/18/farmers-politicians-free-software-fans-demonstrate-against-patents/
Richard Stallman, Farmers and the German CSU Party Unite Against Patents
,----[ Quote ]
| Members of the Foundation for Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), the
| Piratenpartei (Pirate Party), Greenpeace, the Misereor Catholic organization,
| and farmers' unions against the European Patent Office (EPO) recently
| assembled at a rally in Munich, Germany. Demonstrators included Richard
| Stallman, who added his own testimonial to those united against the EPO.
`----
http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/online/news/richard_stallman_farmers_and_the_german_csu_party_unite_against_patents
European Patent Office asks itself about software patents
,----[ Quote ]
| Sadly, the questions posed to the EBA are mined with typical EPO philosophy
| including their definitions of “technical effect”, “further technical
| effect”, “technical character”, “technical considerations” and other
| terminology they have used over the years. In that way they justified black
| being white, or more specifically the applicability of software patents (but,
| naturally, not “as such”).
|
| Seeing how the specific questions to the EBA are phrased (quite some traps in
| there), and what is not asked, it seems clear to me that any set of answers
| with just “yes” or “no” is unable to speak against software patents in any
| meaningful way. Furthermore, if only one was to accept the premises of the
| questions, I submit that seemingly innocent arguments could be twisted in a
| number of ways to justify software patents. Nice job!
`----
http://log.openxp.net/2009/03/22/european-patent-office-asks-itself-about-software-patents/
EPO seeks to validate software patents without the European Parliament
,----[ Quote ]
| At the highest level of the European Patent Office (EPO), the legality of
| software patents in Europe is about to be tested. The FFII warns that the
| European Parliament is being bypassed by allowing a decision with EU-wide
| implications to be made without its involvement or any real debate.
|
| The President of the European Patent Office (EPO), Alison Brimelow, has asked
| the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) to decide on the interpretation of the
| European Patent Convention (EPC) regarding the exclusion of software from
| patentability. The EBA is replacing the European Parliament in order to
| validate software patents EU-wide without the need of a debate.
`----
http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/EPO_seeks_to_validate_software_patents_without_the_European_Parliament
Commission repeats call for single EU patent
,----[ Quote ]
| The European Commission has reiterated its demand for the creation of a
| single European patent. It said the absence of such a protection is hindering
| the growth of technology companies in the European Union.
`----
http://www.out-law.com/page-9878
Patents for software?
,----[ Quote ]
| The EPO does not grant patents for computer programs or computer-implemented
| business methods that make no technical contribution. Programs for computers
| as such are excluded from patentability by virtue of Art. 52(2)(c) and (3)
| EPC. According to this patent law, a program for a computer is not patentable
| if it does not have the potential to cause a "further technical effect" which
| must go beyond the inherent technical interactions between hardware and
| software.
|
| On the other hand, a CII (even in the form of a computer program) that can
| provide this further technical effect can be patentable, subject to the other
| patentability requirements, such as novelty and inventive step. In this case,
| it would be recognised as providing a technical solution to a technical
| problem.
`----
http://www.epo.org/topics/issues/computer-implemented-inventions/software.html
Commission says the Community Patent is all about Software Patents
,----[ Quote ]
| The European Commission has issued a communication asking for the creation of
| the Community Patent in order for "ICT companies to protect their inventions
| in the single market". Large companies were rejecting the software patent
| directive, aiming to validate software patents via the Community Patent and
| skip the debate about patentable subject matter.
`----
http://stopsoftwarepatents.org/forum/t-139537/commission-says-the-community-patent-is-all-abou
EPO comments on EU pharmaceutical sector inquiry
,----[ Quote ]
| The EPO also welcomes the emphasis the report places on the need for the
| creation of a Community patent, and a centralised, specialised European
| patent judiciary.
`----
http://www.epo.org/topics/news/2009/20090318.html
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