European Union Just Say No To Epatents

 As there are tendencies in Europe to

use Software patents much the same

way as it in the USA,

there are interesting campaigns now

starting against patenting of Software

of Europe.

Do your best to support the issue,

or did you know there is a patent

at Quicksort for lists of cursors for

sorting of objects (5175857), or

the use of a diagram to show the length

of sessions in a calendar tool (5247438).

Or the patent for a texteditor do use

different colors to show changes from one

version to the next (4965765).

If you want to use one of this rather simple program

routines or similar in your own applications, you have

to expect to pay license fees, or worse, have to chancel

your application.

The number in clauses are US patent numbers you can

check at http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/patquery

if you do not believe it.

This madness is proposed to be imported to Europe

during this year- so it is time now to do something against

it.

This also concerns publishers of Open Source Software.

Learn more about this topic and what you can do at http://www.freepatents.org

There is also another petition to save Software

Innovation in Europe:

NO ePATENTS

  

A Petition to Save Software Innovation in Europe

  

EuroLinux Alliance

  

petition.eurolinux.org

  

The Eurolinux Alliance of European

software companies and Open Source associations launches a

pan-European petition to keep Europe free from software patents.

This petition is receiving growing support from commercial software

publishers in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France,

Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.

Together with this petition, the EuroLinux Alliance publishes "The

EuroLinux File on Software Patents" a document which lets everyone

understand in less than 15 minutes the dangers posed by software

patents. This document, based on thorough economical and legal

analysis, exhibits clear evidences of the negative impact of software

patents on innovation and competition. It shows that the European

Commission has mainly taken into account the point of view of patent

attorneys, dominant players in the electronic industry and recent

rulings of the United States Patent Office, leaving away the point of

view of innovative European software publishers. Also, the decision

making process at the European Commission does not seem to implement

provisions of the Rome Treaty calling for a high level of competition,

consumer protection, public safety, industrial growth and cultural

diversity in Europe.

This campaign comes as a response of IT associations and software

companies to recent ideological speeches from the Directorate for the

Internal Market at the European Commission, which indicate that the

European Commission will likely issue a directive to extend the scope

of European patents to software and intellectual methods, completely

ignoring the concerns raised by leading software companies, refusing

to study the general economic effects of software patenting, and even

rejecting without explanation arguments raised by other General

Directorates of the European Commission.

  

Previous campaigns on this subject had quickly reached more than

10,000 signatures from software developers. This petition is just the

beginning of a new campaign based on (hopefully not yet patented)

advanced e-techniques to let volunteers participate in the lobbying

effort. It will be formally filed within three months at the European

Parliament.

Read the full press release, sign the petition, get more information at:

The EuroLinux Petition for a Software Patent Free Europe -

   http://petition.eurolinux.org

The EuroLinux File on Software Patents -

   http://petition.eurolinux.org/reference  

Intellectual Property Law in a Global Economy, the hidden patent

agenda of the European Commission -

   http://www.eurolinux.org/news/agenda/