Compliance Toolkit

Story: EC pushes on with patent directive

• 
• 

Arthur B, please find my response below in parentheses.

Mr. Trainee Patent Attorney, you've been badly informed. (I deal with software patents on a daily basis and would like to think that I know something about them. I have also actually read the proposed directive. Have you?)

This is not about the Open Source community. (Yes it is, although perhaps not exclusivley)

This is about the IP from small firms and small guys versus the IP of the big, mostly overseas, firms. (A reason why European firms have weaker IP in software is that the legal situation in Europe is unclear. It is an aim of the directive to resolve this)

The proposed directive is about legalising the wrongfull granting of software patents by patent offices. Who have been motivated to grant as many patents, of all sizes and shapes, as possible. In short, a cover up. (Dear oh dear, this is just plain paranoid)

And a golden investment for big firms that largely own the thousands upon thousands of software patents once those are turned into legally binding software patents. Not to mention an excellent legal weapon to keep the small guys in check. (the flip side of this is that SMEs can use their own IP to fend off larger firms. IP is also an important source of revenue for smaller firms - it atracts investment and can be used for cross licensing)

Meaning: unemployed or doing exactly what the big firms want them to do. (really, honestly, they're not out to get you)

One only has to look at the kind of software patents already granted (but not legalized).
(I'm not sure what you mean by this, software patents are perfectly enforceable in european courts - in what sense are they not legal?)

Many of them are just concepts that will enable lawyers working for big firms with big budgets to drag to court almost every software creator out there today (this just doesnt happen in reality. Very few patents are ever actually litegated)

once those software patents are legalized (or as some would say: "formalized").

Open Source or not, doesn't matter. A small example. How many software programs out there have code within them that react to a single mosue click on a certain button on a web page? Almost all of them. That'll make the owner of that particular (concept) software patent very happy once that's "formalized" (or as some would say: legalized).
(Once more, this just doesnt occur in reality. The example you give is a bad one because "clicking with a mouse" is obvious, patents are not available for obvious inventions. Some people believe that truly good ideas should be rewarded, so as to encourage further innovation)

The commercial reality of today are copyrights. Works well as has been shown by history. (copyright is almost, but not entirely, impossible to enforce. It is therefore approximately useless)

• 
• 

• 
• 
• 

Full Talkback thread