Free Patents
Protecting Innovation & Competition in the IT Industry
Europe Citizens - Act Now !
Protect Business and Liberty from Software Patents
Although big names such as Oracle, Adobe, etc. had claimed that patents
on software are more harmful than useful, the US law system has allowed
for a decade the filing of patents for elementary software processes. The
30.000 software patents filed every year are now used to attack and eliminate
independant software publishers or free software authors.
After intensive American lobbying efforts, Japan also introduced software
patents. Europe seems to be the next on the list.
On June 24 and 25 1999 in Paris, France, the European member states
of the Munchen convention met and discussed the software patent issue.
They have decided to wait for one more
year before taking any final decision regarding article 52.2, which says
that computer programmes as such are not patentable. And French State Secretary
Christian Pierret has stressed the necessity to study the economic impact
of software patents on the software industry.
A European Union directive is now being prepared to harmonize and clarify
the rules related to software patents, which is of course necessary. The
proposed directive is planned to be released during Q3 or Q4 1999 and will
be discussed for about one year. The European Commission (DGXV) seems to
be pushing for more software patents rather than for more control on trivial
software patents with no industrial application such as 96305851.6.
And no economic study has been made yet to clarify the impact of software
patents on the software industry. If not designed carefully, such a directive
would create a lot of juridical uncertainty, playing havoc with the whole
european independent software industry, obstructing competition and, in
the mid term, slowing down innovation and investment in the software industry.
We encourage you to write to the people
listed here and express your concerns.
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This Web site is dedicated to the protection of innovation, competition
and open source software against the use and abuse of software patents.
Europe is currently prohibiting patents on computer programmes as such
and requires for a patent to be granted that it has an industrial application.
This gives its members an economic advantage, protects open source
software all over the world and stimulates innovation made by small companies.
However, powerful pressures are trying to make Europe change
its wise position on software patents. freepatents.org thinks the new EU
position on software patents is a threat to competition, small companies,
innovation and open source software.
05/05/00 -
German Ministery of Economics organises conference on the economic impact of Software Patents
The German Ministery of Economics organises a conference on the economic impact of software patents, and especially free software. The FFII Software Patent workgroup, sponsored by reputable companies, will attend the conference together with Gregory Aharonian, worldwide specialist of software patents statistics.
more
05/04/00 -
More articles against USPTO practices
After the USPTO announced it may try to increase the inventivity level
required for granting a software patent, articles have been published in
ZDNet
and in
The Register
to discuss the possibility that software patents may be more harmful than useful.
more
29/03/00 -
Belgian LUG starts petition
Students at Louvain-La-Neuve University (Belgium)
have started a petition requesting EU civil servants and managers to study
the impact of software patents on innovation, competition, consumer protection, etc.
before taking a decision.
more
14/03/00 -
James Gleick: "the patent system is in crisis"
In an article of the NY Times, James Gleick, author of
neteconomy best sellers, claims that "a series of unplanned mutations have transformed patents into a positive threat to the
digital economy. The patent office has grown entangled in philosophical confusion of its
own making; it has become a ferocious generator of litigation; and many technologists
believe that it has begun to choke the very innovation it was meant to nourish."
more
14/03/00 -
Richard Stallman proposes no-first-use policy
In a letter to Tim O'Reilly, Richard Stallman notices that
software patent holders say they have software patents "for defensive purposes" and proposes a global
non aggression pact approach.
more
10/3/2000 -
An open letter from Jeff Bezos on the subject of patents
Jeff Bezos (Amazon Manager) proposes to start a lobbying action to implement "fast patents" that would last 3 to 5 years
and would be more appropriate for the software and ecommerce industry.
more
6/3/2000 -
Paul Barton-Davis (Amazon founder): "I call upon the United States Patent Office to cease issuing software patents"
Paul Barton-Davis, one of the founding programmers at Amazon.com, "welcomes the use of a boycott" to enforce
the end of software patents, or at least
to improve the UPSPTO standards for judging software patent applications.
more
26/2/2000 -
USPTO grants patent on online business referrals
The USPTO has granted to Amazon a patent on online business referral. The way the
patent application was written clearly contains a so-called technical part. If EU was to legalise software patents
based on a "technical solution of a technical problem" approach of inventivity, this kind of patent could also exist in Europe.
Also, the Gartner Group predicts that, by the year 2001, between 50 and 80% of all electronic purchases will be done through affiliate networks. Sounds like Amazon wants to become the big brother of electronic commerce.
more
22/2/2000 -
Software Useright: Solving Inconsitencies of Software Patents
JP. Smets presented at the NordU 2000
conference in Malmo an article which introduces a formal economic model of patents in the software publishing industry,
shows that current patent systems may harm competition and innovation in the software publishing industry
and proposed an example of approach to software patenting which may solve many of the currently
known inconsistencies.
more
21/2/2000 -
Software Patents Tangle the Web
According to Seth Shulman, the current situation of software patents "clearly favors bigger firms" and that "there's ample historical evidence that overly broad patents have stifled innovation in emerging industries". The US Supreme court was already stating 100 years ago that
"it creates a class of speculative schemers who make it their business to watch the advancing wave of improvement, and gather its foam in the form of patented
monopolies".
more
Previous News
19/1/2000 |
Geoworks threatens WAP standard with patents, Europe preserved more |
22/12/1999 |
RMS urges worldwide Amazon boycott more |
2/7/1999 |
Jamal Labed (Staff ET Line): "Software Patents may slow down
innovation" more |
25/6/1999 |
Christian Pierret: "The economic impact on the software industry
should be evaluated, especially regarding Free Software" more |
18/6/1999 |
Software Patents lead to Juridical Inconsistencies more |
17/6/1999 |
10 European Industry Leaders raise concerns about Software
Patents more |
16/6/1999 |
Ralf Schoebel (Intradat): "Software patents could be damaging
for the economy of small european software companies" more |
16/6/1999 |
Tatu Ylonen (SSH): "Innovation in information technology
would be best served without software patents" more |
15/6/1999 |
Ismael Ghalimi (ExOffice) supports "no patent on open source"
approach more |
15/6/1999 |
Jean-Paul Smets : "Patents on programmes as such may lead
to the end of free commerce" more |
14/6/1999 |
Dutch Inventor of Internet push technology considers patents
on software potentially very damaging to SMEs more |
11/6/1999 |
Jean Ferré (ARISEM) : "Software Patents mean the death
of spontaneous innovation" more |
11/6/1999 |
Software associations gather in Koln and discuss the
patent issue more |
29/5/1999 |
Red Herring : "Industry leaders are putting startup through
legal hell - and dampening innovation" more |
24/5/1999 |
Haavard Nord (Troll Tech) : "We are strongly against software
patents because they prevent competition" more |
17/5/1999 |
Berners-Lee Calls For Curbs On Internet Patents more |
17/5/1999 |
A letter to the EU Competition Commissioner more |
16/5/1999 |
AFUL : "Legalizing software patents in Europe will lead many
independant software editors to close their business" more |
16/3/1999 |
Richard Stallman -- Saving Europe from Software Patent more |
13/5/1999 |
First draft proposals from the freepatents workgroup more |
6/5/1999 |
FFII : "After intensive American lobbying efforts, Japan introduced
software patents. And the EU is now planning to do the same." more |
3/5/1999 |
W3C Investigates Patent Claim on P3P Technology more |
26/4/1999 |
Bruce Alberts : "IP stops progress in science" more |
26/4/1999 |
Patent FAQ more |
21/4/1999 |
Patent Searching more |
13/4/1999 |
License-based patent protection more |
20/3/1999 |
First (virtual) Internet Law : "Patents on Internet standards
should be free or banned" more |
18/3/1999 |
Senator Laffitte : "Governments should not use patented standards
to exchange information with citizens" more |
13/3/1999 |
French Book on Free Software highlights software patents
issue more |
7/3/1999 |
Linus Torvalds : "patents as they stand now are a real problem" more |
23/2/1999 |
Michael Widenius (MySQL): "Software patents are more harmful
that useful" more |
11/2/199 |
Internal memo of EU, EU parliament in favour of software
patents more |
5/2/1999 |
Microsoft tries to patent a W3C standard more |
1/2/1999 |
Le Monde Article more |
15/1/1999 |
"Patent
to Kill" - Libération Article more |
12/1/1999 |
freepatents.org more |
9/1/1999 |
ISOC France Meeting in Autrans (France) more |
All these news in one page
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