Story index
- 11 May 2010 15:01 — "No Power for the Parliament" warns EPO examiners association: The Staff Union of the EPO sent a letter to the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, warning of risks integrated into the accession of the European Union to the European Patent Convention (EPC). They warn that the European Parliament can be circumvented as a legislator in patent law. (Comments: 39)
- 10 Feb 2010 16:11 — Alvaro asks 9 questions to the Commission about ACTA, including 3 strikes and transparency: Alexander Alvaro (ALDE) has asked 9 questions about ACTA, including 3 strikes and transparency, or the access by the INTA committee to the drafts documents. He is also asking about changes to substantive patent law (read software patents here). (Comments: 29)
- 09 Feb 2010 12:05 — Members of European Parliaments ask when they will receive the ACTA documents: Some Member of the European Parliament have asked when they will receive the ACTA documents, mentioning the Lisbon Treaty article 218 which says that the Parliament have to be "fully informed" of the negotiations. The new trade commissioner Karel DeGucht said previously that the Lisbon Treaty do not apply to ACTA, because the confidentiality of the talks were negotiated before. (Comments: 32)
- 07 Oct 2009 12:14 — FFII and IP Justice file Bilski Amicus Brief to the U.S. Supreme Court: The Foundation for a Free Informational Infrastructure (FFII) and IP Justice filed an Amicus Curiae Brief to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case Bilski v. Kappos is expected to become a landmark ruling on the future of the U.S. patent system. The joint Brief explains the interlink of software and business methods, and points out alternatives to the so called Machine-or-Transformation test used for categorizing patents. (Comments: 9)
- 02 Sep 2009 22:30 — IBM says software patents drive OSS development: In its Amicus Brief to the US Supreme Court on the Bilski case, IBM is arguing that "patent protection has promoted the free sharing of source code [...] which has fueled the explosive growth of open source software development." (Comments: 87)
- 08 Jul 2009 11:54 — What's wrong with the United Patent Litigation System (UPLS)?: A journalist of WorldIPReview recently asked FFII what were its views of the proposed United Patent Litigation System (UPLS), which is now being questioned by the Council in a submission to the ECJ. FFII had already published a press release mentioning the new push for software patents in Europe via a centralised and trusted court. (Comments: 0)
- 03 Jul 2009 17:34 — The Bilski test was invented by IBM: By reading the Amicus Brief of IBM to the CAFC, it is pretty clear that the machine tranformation test which allows software patents and ban business method patents was invented by IBM lawyers. (Comments: 220)
- 22 Jun 2009 12:34 — USPTO refuses to disclose Bilski's pending patent application: The US Supreme Court will soon hear Bilski on why software and business method patents are so good for the US economy. I was trying to find out where the Bilski's pending patent application was published, and I ended up writing to the new USPTO President and ex-IBM David Kappos. I finally got an answer from a USPTO official that the Bilski's pending patent application cannot be seen by the public. (Comments: 38)
- 09 Jun 2009 10:49 — Patent expert Alison Crofts says EPLA is pushed by pro-software patents lobby: In its edition of IP Value 2007, the Intellectual Asset Magazine (IAM) was publishing an article about the Reform of European Patent System, where an expert mentions that the push for the EPLA is coming from the pro-software patents lobby. (Comments: 5)
- 04 Jun 2009 20:24 — European Patent Office refuses spanish amicus brief against software patents: Alberto Barrionuevo, CEO of the small spanish software company OpenTIA and ex-president of the FFII, had submitted an amicus brief to the Enlarged Board of Appeal in spanish. The European Patent Office has notified him that they are refusing his letter because it was not written in one of the 3 official languages of the EPO. (Comments: 1)
- 12 May 2009 13:30 — European Commission pushes for software patents via a trusted court: The European Commission is pushing for software patents via a centralised trusted patent court that would be created with the United Patent Litigation System (UPLS), an international treaty that would remove national courts. This court system would be shielded against any review by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Thus patent judges would have the last word on software patents. (Comments: 27)
- 22 Apr 2009 11:25 — Conference on "Make software patents work for SMEs": The European Commission is organising a conference dedicated to "Make IPR work for SMEs" next Monday in Brussels. You can here submit your questions for next Monday on how to "Make software patents work for SMEs". (Comments: 49)
- 20 Apr 2009 12:25 — Stallman: "The EPO is a corrupt and malicious organisation which should not exist": Last Wednesday, farmers and software developers were demonstrating in Munich in front of the European Patent Office. Richard Stallman was describing the European Patent Office as a "corrupt and malicious organisation which should not exist". (Comments: 0)
- 14 Apr 2009 23:27 — The ACTA draft treaty is covering patent infringement: Wikileaks has published some drafts of the secret ACTA treaty, which aims to give better guns to Patent Trolls. The draft mentions that it covers all the rights covered by TRIPS, so it will cover also patents. (Comments: 37)
- 12 Apr 2009 10:32 — Secret European Union mandate to negotiate ACTA leaked: fears confirmed: The secret European Union mandate to negotiate the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was leaked. Member of the European Parliament Jens Holms said the document has confirmed his fears. (Comments: 1)
- 06 Apr 2009 16:55 — Call the Obama administration and ask for your copy of ACTA now!: The Obama administration wants to be called about the status of negotiations of ACTA. Call the Obama administration and ask for your copy of ACTA now! (Comments: 11)
- 01 Apr 2009 10:21 — FFII and EPO announce "Binaries-As-Prior-Art": After years of confidential work, the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) today announce a radical way to improve software patent quality: Binaries-As-Prior-Art, or BAPA. BAPA combines a database of billions of compiled computer programs ("binaries") with a powerful Cloud search engine that can find any invention in microseconds. (Comments: 0)
- 27 Mar 2009 13:36 — The Conspiracy of Silence: The greatest threat to the global movement to abolish software patents is not the patent trolls or legacy businesses, but the conspiracy of silence from those on "our side" of the debate. (Comments: 4)
- 24 Mar 2009 16:04 — Did Red Hat lobby for, or against software patents in Europe?: In this article we revisit the historical 2005 Software Patent Directive, the most heavily lobbied European law ever, and look at Red Hat's public policy statements regarding this law. Our conclusion: Red Hat Instead, they endorsed the propaganda term "Computer Implemented Invention" and they lobbied for amendments that would legislate for, not against, software patents across Europe where the letter of the law still forbade them. (Comments: 16)
- 22 Mar 2009 16:49 — Who drives the Spanish ICT public policy? The Minister? Sure?: Open letter to the Spanish Minister of Industry demanding him to fire to the vice-minister who seems to drive the current ICT public policy of Spain... for big telecoms and Hollywood entertainment corporations. The man who tries to bring the French 3-strikes against P2P to Spain. Everything against the public opinions expressed by the Minister. What is wrong here, Minister Sebastián? (Comments: 6)
- 20 Mar 2009 09:43 — Red Hat patents SOAP processing over CGI: US Patent 7453593 claims command-line processing by a web server of SOAP requests, resulting in XML responses, from and to a remote client. The HTTP Common Gateway Interface (CGI) operates precisely as described in Claim 1. If you POST a SOAP document and return an XHTML response or a SOAP document, this infringes on Claim 2, since both XHTML and SOAP are XML languages. This patent thus claims to own the processing of SOAP documents by CGI programs. (Comments: 2)
- 17 Mar 2009 08:56 — EPO seeks to validate software patents without the European Parliament: Brussels, 17 March 2009 -- 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. (Comments: 0)
- 05 Mar 2009 17:13 — Czech Presidency recommends you to buy Microsoft Word: The Czech Presidency recommends you to buy Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint in other to read what they are publishing. (Comments: 0)
- 11 Feb 2009 14:18 — "Council seeks to legalise software patents with the Community Patent" says French expert: The Council seeks to legalise software patents with the Community Patent, says Mr Pellegrini, ex-advisor of Michel Rocard, former MEP and rapporteur on the rejected software patent directive. The ultimate goal of this move is to create central caselaw on software patents by a specialized patent court. (Comments: 0)
- 04 Feb 2009 08:33 — AT&T lobbies European Parliament to destroy net neutrality: AT&T is speading some amendments to the Telecom Package in the European Parliament in order to destroy net neutrality, in order to be able to sell different kind of services at different prices. (Comments: 2)
- 15 Jan 2009 16:58 — EU trade polices for pharma-driven changes to Indias IP laws: Shefali Sharma wrote a EED report in which she highlights the role of Trade Agreements for the subversion of democratic decision making over IPR laws. (Comments: 2)
- 18 Nov 2008 13:20 — 53 answers to the revision of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF): The Commission has published on its website the list of stakeholders who contributed to the consultation on the revision of the European Interoperability Framework (EIFv2). Even if the European Interoperability Framework is mostly directed to provide open standards, it can be expected that some large industry players wants to put their patents and restrictions on how citizens can communicate with their governments. (Comments: 1)
- 17 Nov 2008 08:30 — Public letter concerning "interoperability" of Tineke Egyedi: Digital Majority publishes an open letter from the standards researcher from Dutch Technical University of Delft concerning "Interoperability between multi-vendor OOXML applications" (Comments: 0)
- 17 Nov 2008 07:46 — Lutz Heilmann and the Soviet Internet: Lutz Heilmann, an MP of the party fraction "DIE LINKE" in the German Parliament uses a court injunction to cut off the domain of the German Wikipedia.de. DIE LINKE originates from the governing party of the German Democratic Republic SED and underwent several transformations. The case relates to allegations of an sms blackmail and an alleged participation in a sex shop business of a former partner and drew attention to his former service as an object protector of the GDR State security services. (Comments: 1)
- 12 Nov 2008 23:33 — Napster judge proposes a soviet internet: Judge Miriam Hall Patel, who presided over the case that killed off original Napster, is proposing that "Manufacturers and developers would need approval from this body before introducing an application or device capable of recording, distributing or copying music to consumers. The body would include technology experts to aid in making those decisions quickly -- Patel described this as "sort of like the FDA, but much faster."". (Comments: 0)
- 07 Nov 2008 10:41 — Council does not want to provide its contract with Microsoft, destroys study on Open Source: Marco Cappato MEP asked the Council to provide him the contract concluded by the Council and Microsoft, and the Study on the Open Source realized by the interinstitutional committee on informatics in 2005. The Council refused to supply these documents. (Comments: 2)
- 05 Nov 2008 21:01 — OpenParliament petition goes to the European Parliament PETI committee: The OpenParliament petition goes to the European Parliament PETI committee. The draft agenda of tomorrow mentions another interesting petition by a German citizen who has been required by the state to purchase Microsoft products. The European Parliament also forces European citizens to buy a copy of Microsoft Word to consult parliamentary questions, or to use Windows Media Player to view the European Parliament's webTV WMV streaming. Time to send the bill to President Poettering. (Comments: 4)
- 04 Nov 2008 17:46 — OGG Theora Licence contains provisions on patent licensing: The OGG Theroa Licence contains some provisions on patent licensing. On2, the owner of the patent, basically waive its rights to enforce the patent. (Comments: 1)
- 03 Nov 2008 08:02 — ACTA = ISP liabilities, Criminal sanctions for file sharing, and cheap guns for Patent Trolls: According to a leaked document authored by the European Commission DG Trade, the secret ACTA treaty will reopen the debate on the liabilities of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) over content, as well as trying to achieve criminal sanctions in the EU under the French Presidency Sarkozy. ACTA will also copy/paste harsh provisions of the Fourtou directive, which allow freeze of bank accounts for suspected patent infringements. (Comments: 2)
- 30 Oct 2008 20:26 — Soviet Internet arrives in France: The Soviet Internet where all software that runs on the internet needs to be certified by the State has arrived in France. The rapporteur over the law Hadopi (Internet and Creations) in the French Senate, Mr Tholliere (UMP, same party as Sarkozy), is proposing that all software running on the internet should have a stamp from the State in order to be legal. (Comments: 0)
- 06 Oct 2008 10:15 — ACTA and other monsters discussed behind Council closed doors: The Council is discussing measures to curb infringements of patented progress bars and others counterfeited shoes. ACTA and other monsters are discussed behind Council closed doors. (Comments: 0)
- 23 Sep 2008 10:45 — Urgent reform of the European Law making process needed?: I am following the Telecom Package amendments fiasco, here are some ideas for reforming the process of adoption of the laws in Europe, without any need to change the treaties. (Comments: 0)
- 23 Sep 2008 08:46 — Microsoft platform lobbies against European Parliament resolution on Open Source software: Microsoft lobby plafform "Voices for Innovation", which is managed by APCO (a well-known lobby firm in Brussels of which Microsoft is a client), has sent an alert to their corporate members asking them to lobby against a parliamentary resolution led by Rocard-Cotigny-Geremek-Geremek, which is asking to migrate the European Parliament systems to FLOSS, and to give some funds for R&D of FLOSS in Europe. (Comments: 2)
- 17 Sep 2008 16:59 — European Parliament TV for customers of American companies only?: The European Parliament has launched the European Parliament TV, so that people can partially see what they are doing. The video streaming seems to be for customers of an American company only. (Comments: 1)
- 05 Sep 2008 13:29 — Displaying the price of Microsoft Windows to be decided by the ECJ?: Most laptops are sold without the price of Microsoft Windows displayed before the consumer buys it. This is an issue if you want to use another piece of software on your laptop, such another version of Microsoft Windows, or Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD or OpenSolaris. There are 2 decisions (Cases C-261/07 and C-299/07) pending at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on this issue. (Comments: 1)
- 03 Sep 2008 12:33 — EDPS confirms the possibility of a 'Soviet Internet': EDPS, the European Data Protection Supervisor, points out in its analysis of the Harbour report that amendment 81 gives the possibility of a 'Soviet Internet', where National Regulatory Authorities could impose technological mandates, such as mandatory TPM chips to connect to the internet. (Comments: 0)
- 28 Aug 2008 17:19 — World Day Against Software Patents (24 Sep 2008): You want to get your software association, software company, software consultancy, software project involved in the 24 September World Day Against Software Patents and are able to speak in the name of your organisation? Please give us your contact data below. Your organisation gets the opportunity to be listed as a supporter for the announcement of the World Day Against Software Patents. (Comments: 1)
- 15 Aug 2008 20:01 — Subprime Patents: Many patents work in the same way as subprime mortgages and all its derivatives. They create false assets and so false economies that finally develop in important economical crisis. But in the case of patents it is worse indeed, because every patent is potentially a monopoly and a block to the free market. (Comments: 0)
- 13 Aug 2008 21:51 — EPO gets Google style search: The EPO will introduce full text search for patents this year. (Comments: 0)
- 08 Aug 2008 15:55 — Software patents on the way to be legalised in India: A comment on a blog tell us that software patents are on a way to be legalised in India. Microsoft, Infosys, Symantec and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) (nice name :-)) were pushing for software patents at a recent meeting at the Indian Patent Office in Mumbai. RedHat was "shot down" at the meeting. (Comments: 1)
- 27 Jul 2008 15:15 — EPO says the term "software" is ambiguous and prefers to use tautology for more clarity: EPO says the term "software" is ambiguous, and prefers to use tautology for more clarity. Maybe the European Patent Office has a different dictionary than I have. (Comments: 0)
- 17 Jul 2008 06:12 — Patent trolls start on the open source sector: Why go to the effort of developing new software when you can use patents to extort other companies? A story about FireStar Software, which has not updated its software since 2003, preferring to rely on lawyers rather than programmers, to assure its income... (Comments: 0)
- 14 Jul 2008 10:23 — Patented wheels or how you can drive a car: Recently I found this picture of patented wheels. Just for history I post it here. (Comments: 0)
- 10 Jul 2008 09:52 — EU proposes chaining IPR with competition law: Competition policy and intellectual property policy are like cats and dogs. France on behalf of the EU proposes to overcome the current unintermediated situation. (Comments: 0)
- 08 Jul 2008 10:44 — Bunyan wants better document access: How can civil society influence trade talks if everything's secret? Statewatch has an opinion on that. (Comments: 0)
- 04 Jul 2008 18:37 — European Parliament rushes towards Soviet Internet: Brussels, 04 July 2008 — Amendments to the European Telecommunications directive being rushed through the European Parliament propose a "Soviet internet" where software publishers and internet service providers watch traffic and data for Hollywood. Software and services that run on the internet would have to ask for permission of the regulators. (Comments: 0)
- 04 Jul 2008 09:07 — Spanish MEP paints the EPO as the legislator: The EPO Gazette reports that some MEPs members of the Legal Affairs committee visited the EPO in early June. Questions were raised on the democratic control of the Office, and how the Alicante model of the OHIM could also apply to the EPO. One MEP mentioned that the EPO is also taking political decisions. (Comments: 0)
- 30 Jun 2008 15:26 — Get your patent licence at Microsoft: If you don't trust the OSP (Open Specification Promise), ask for a patent licence at Microsoft. "If you would prefer a written license, or if the formats are not covered by the OSP, patent licenses are available by contacting iplg@microsoft.com" they say on their website. (Comments: 0)
- 22 Jun 2008 22:42 — Campaign4Creativity is back in software patents lobbying: Simon Gentry is back in software patents lobbying. Now his role is to push for legalisation of software patents via the creation of central patent court in Europe. (Comments: 0)
- 19 Jun 2008 12:37 — WIPO will discuss a report on patents and open standards next week: WIPO will discuss next week a report on the international patent system. A section of it is mentioning open standards. (Comments: 1)
- 18 Jun 2008 12:49 — Commission publishes transatlanctic roadmap to advance global patent harmonisation: The Commission agreed with its transatlantic counterparts on a road map to patent harmonisation, during the TEC 13 May, but did not publish the document. Now its out. (Comments: 4)
- 13 Jun 2008 17:29 — Barroso after the Irish NO vote: "The treaty is alive, and we should now try to find a solution": President of the European Commission reacted to the Irish NO vote by saying they will try to bypass it: "The treaty is alive, and we should now try to find a solution". There is no doubt that there will be attempts to bypass the decision of the polls in Ireland. (Comments: 1)
- 10 Jun 2008 13:53 — Microsoft sucks 8,136,000 EUR each year out of the European Commission: Commission pays Microsoft each year 226EUR for its office infrastructure. Commission has approx 36,000 users. Make the math. Commission makes also "open" tenders which prefers Microsoft products. (Comments: 4)
- 09 Jun 2008 10:44 — Belgium on the way to scrap patents in Flemish?: The council of ministers in Belgium has decided last 23rd of May to proceed with the ratification of the London Agreement, in order to scrap the requirement for translations of patents granted in Belgium in Flemish. (Comments: 2)
- 08 Jun 2008 18:00 — How fast is your printer? MEP Smith wants you to know.: And Commissioner Kuneva answers with references to existing consumer protection provisions. (Comments: 0)
- 05 Jun 2008 13:39 — EICTA has a new surprise President: EICTA has a new President. Guess from which small european company he is from. (Comments: 0)
- 02 Jun 2008 09:25 — Ars: OOXML revolt brewing? Three countries appeal ISO approval: India, Brazil, and South Africa are attempting to appeal ISO's fast-track approval of Microsoft's controversial Office Open XML (OOXML) format. The organizations representing those countries in ISO complain of process irregularities, lack of inclusiveness during meetings and debates, and insufficient time to address all of the issues and concerns raised by participants during the review process. (Comments: 0)
- 23 May 2008 17:18 — Europe By Satellite only for certain people: In order to find out what your members of European Parliament are doing, you need some special software. Europe by Satellite (EBS) is only for those people who have the right software. (Comments: 1)
- 23 May 2008 15:19 — Jonathan Zuck replies on the need to mandate Open Standards: Jonathan Zuck, President of the Association for Competitive Technology, a lobbying association in which Microsoft is a member, is replying to the demand to have open standards, especially for the video streaming of the European Parliamentary sessions. (Comments: 0)
- 19 May 2008 19:15 — Verheugen Commission wants to set the minds of children: Responsible lobbyism respects our democratic culture. Unfettered technocratic thinking neglects the basic principles of European liberalism. The small business act as an example for loss of reality. (Comments: 0)
- 19 May 2008 18:24 — EUPACO-3: EU vs EPO and Patent Litigation (3rd June, Brussels): EUPACO-3 is the next conference in our series to provide insights into the future of the European patent system. The format of the conference will be different from previous editions, as it allows stronger interaction with the audience and possibility of taking the floor. General topics for further discussions: - Community Patent: EU in the EPO, or EPO in the EU? - Patent Litigation in Europe: on the road to Texas? (Comments: 0)
- 13 May 2008 18:05 — FFII: McCreevy wants to legalise Software Patents via a US-EU patent treaty: 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. (Comments: 5)
- 12 May 2008 20:51 — Let's bet that the Microsoft appeal to the ECJ is about patents: Microsoft is appealing the decision of the European Commission over software patents. Microsoft is not happy about the patent licesing terms that the Commission has negotiated, and want to tax open source projects, such Samba and Redhat. (Comments: 0)
- 12 May 2008 10:07 — John Duffy defending business method patents: Pr John Duffy, speaker at Eupaco2, seems to defend patentability of business method patents. (Comments: 0)
- 11 May 2008 21:08 — Parliament dissatisfied with Mandelson's patent push: Commissioner Mandelson interferes into internal matters of Thailand on behalf of the pharma industry. The European Parliament groups are dissatisfied. (Comments: 0)
- 10 May 2008 00:19 — Tauchert 2000: good old times: In 2000 Tauchert spoke open about the commercial benefit of the patent system for patent examiners and the lack of need for economic analysis. (Comments: 0)
- 23 Apr 2008 02:28 — El Khadraoui (PSE) on rights waivers: We now have the situation that a lot of content owners waive their rights and certain services depend on free content because of restrictive licensing conditions of collective societies. MEP El Khadraoui asks the council. (Comments: 1)
- 19 Apr 2008 17:28 — Reasonable and not non-discriminatory: Is it reasonable for a convicted monopolist to discriminate against its competitors by using exclusive rights that should not be granted in the first place? (Comments: 0)
- 09 Apr 2008 14:54 — IBM's vision for the future of office communication: Lotus General Manager Mike Rhodin plays prophet for the future of office collaboration software. Among his five point he raises is also a bet on open standards and interoperability. (Comments: 0)
- 06 Apr 2008 22:01 — The EPO, a Public Service Organisation out of control?: This press release of SUEPO, the Staff Union of the EPO, says everything about the problems of the institution. (Comments: 0)
- 03 Apr 2008 12:22 — MEP Erik Meijer questions Windows bundling: And Commissioner Nelly Kroes responds on behalf of the Commission. (Comments: 0)
- 01 Apr 2008 15:21 — MEP Romeva i Rueda asks Commission to take Open Source into account: The ICT at the crossroads document of the Commission failed to address the field of Open Source in the line with the Lisbon strategy, finds Romeva i Rueda. The problem he identifies is the promotion of patented standards. (Comments: 0)
- 28 Mar 2008 01:35 — Brad Smith continues its FUD spreading, wants to tax RedHat: Brad Smith continues its FUD spreading, wants to tax RedHat. The only solution for Microsoft to tax linux is software patents. Microsoft wants to render GPL free software non-free. The message is clear. (Comments: 0)
- 27 Mar 2008 11:10 — When the USPTO was rejecting software patents: The examination guidelines of the US patent office in 1968 were mandating examiners to reject software patents. The law is still the same, but the USPTO practice changed with the CAFC decisions. (Comments: 0)
- 26 Mar 2008 14:29 — Even with 'patent reform', the trolls are not going away: IAM has published a recent article titled "Meet the middlemen" over what they call new business models for making money out of IP. Patent trolls might be a simpler term. The article concludes that the ongoing reform in the US is not gonna change anything. (Comments: 2)
- 19 Mar 2008 23:13 — Trilaterals 2007: EPO goes on economic research shopping tour: The Trilaterals report shows that the EPO tries to get some economists on board. To get the perspective right they dismiss a microeconomic approach as a macroeconomic report would be more suitable to support strategic considerations. (Comments: 0)
- 17 Mar 2008 15:34 — South African Government speaks on Software Patents: Today in Senegal, the South African Minister of Public Service Administration, Geraldine Frasier-Moleketi, delivered the following powerful speech to the FOSSFA conference, discussing open standards and software patents. (Comments: 8)
- 15 Mar 2008 13:42 — Austrian MEP asks for stronger broadcast copyright: Othmar Karas asks the Commission if written and spoken word of journalists would be recognized as copyrighted works of authors. A stealth question from the broadcast treaty follow-up debate. (Comments: 0)
- 13 Mar 2008 21:17 — US patent images not for Ubuntu users: The access to patent data discriminates user of the Ubuntu Operating system. (Comments: 1)
- 10 Mar 2008 16:36 — Kuneva answers on tied selling: It is almost impossible to buy a laptop without Microsoft Windows pre-installed, and it is almost impossible to buy an Apple iPhone without a subscription to a particular phone provider. (Comments: 1)
- 10 Mar 2008 14:36 — Commission to exclude free software from public administrations: An MEP has written a question on the use of patented standards within public administrations. The position of the DG Enterprise is definitely to prefer RAND patented standards, and exclude free software from public administrations. (Comments: 1)
- 09 Mar 2008 22:56 — ALDE MEPs question Commission on global online freedom: Jules Maaten (ALDE) and Karin Riis-Jørgensen (ALDE) want to know from the Commission if it is willing to develop a European Global Online Freedom Act and support online freedom defense tools. (Comments: 0)
- 05 Mar 2008 10:35 — EPO Gazette: talking about trust: How is dissatisfaction voiced in a technocratic organizations where staff is obliged to shut up? The latest EPO Gazette is a wonderful example. (Comments: 6)
- 29 Feb 2008 15:06 — Italian MEP Cappato questions Council and Commission on patent quality measurement: The Council and the Commission has answered a question from an italian MEP Marco Cappato on the quality of patents granted, and the future Community patent. The National Patent Offices who are populating the Working Group on Patents of the Council have really few things to say about patent quality. (Comments: 1)
- 17 Feb 2008 10:49 — USPTO calling data "tangible" result: The USPTO is arguing against business method patents in the CAFC banc review of subject matter, while trying to keep software patents on track. (Comments: 0)
- 17 Feb 2008 00:00 — Europe to send downloaders in jail without any public attention?: The criminal sanctions directive might send internet downloaders in jail. The directive has passed the European Parliament in the complete ignorance of the majority of internet users. The rapporteur finally admits that this directive is all about sending filesharers to jail. (Comments: 0)
- 08 Feb 2008 18:21 — Perens: State of Open Source Message: A New Decade For Open Source: Bruce Perens looks back on the first decade of "Open Source", and highlights the role of software patents as the Achilles Heel of Free Software. (Comments: 0)
- 08 Feb 2008 15:35 — LinuxFoundation: Long interview with Linus Torvalds: Pretty thorough interview with some nice comments on patents and innovation. (Comments: 0)
- 05 Feb 2008 17:44 — European Commission to exclude Open Source developers with patented standards?: The European Commission is organizing next week in Brussels a conference on "European ICT standardisation policy at a crossroads: A new direction for global success". Among the papers in discussion for this conference, one paper suggests to allow RAND standards as general policy. The European Commission seems to listen to the big industry who contributed to the discussion paper. RAND standards (such as h264 or MPEG2) are a way to exclude FLOSS developers, because they require royalty payments that developers cannot afford. (Comments: 1)
- 04 Feb 2008 11:51 — IAM magazine admits that a central court can legalize software patents: Joff Wild, chief editor of the IAM magazine, admits on his blog that the creation of a central patent court in Europe will be instrumental in legalizing software patents. (Comments: 0)
- 31 Jan 2008 23:54 — Why Microsoft likes Linux and "Open Source" now: For the past six years, Microsoft has evolved it’s thinking about open source software. Who would have thought six years ago that Microsoft would support Linux through a patent program with Novell? (Comments: 0)
- 28 Jan 2008 18:14 — Perspektive89 interviews FFII at the 24th Chaos Communication Congress: Perspektive89 has interviewed FFII members at the 24th Chaos Communication Congress. Besides some general talk about the activities of the FFII in Brussels, there are few insights into the current campaign against the Microsoft standard ooxml. (Comments: 0)
- 28 Jan 2008 12:03 — Two questions on the status of the data retention directive: MEPs Cappato and Alvaro, both from the ALDE group, have asked questions about the status of implementation of the Data retention directive. They are mentioning the 'exception related to the Internet', as well as the creation of a Platform for Electronic Data Retention. (Comments: 1)
- 24 Jan 2008 17:05 — The lobbyists of the National Patent Offices and seperation of powers: A recent interview of Benoît Battistelli, general director of the French Patent Office INPI, shows that his institution is not only granting patents, but also lobbying the legislator in order to get a Central Court for validating software patents in Europe. (Comments: 0)
- 21 Jan 2008 14:44 — Follow the debate in Parliament with Windows Media Player only: Today, the frontpage of the European Parliament was advertising live broadcast on the internet of the "Google - Doubleclick merger" discussed by MEPs in the Civil Liberties Committee. Hopefully, the internet is only for people who paid the Microsoft tax, the stream is advertised as being for Windows Media Player only. The internet is only for Microsoft pre-installed customers. (Comments: 0)
- 21 Jan 2008 13:24 — Pro-software patent conference "What IT Practitioners Need To Know", London, 31st January: Marks & Clerk, a patent attorneys firm, is organizing a pro-software patent conference "Software Patents - What IT Practitioners Need To Know" in London next 31st January. From the lawyers point of view: "Many American businesses are adept at using software patents to their advantage". (Comments: 0)
- 17 Jan 2008 00:34 — Software patents prevent Fedora to include some games: Tom Callaway, long time packager for Redhat, is warning that the company cannot include some games in the distribution because of software patents. A patent seems to cover a game where "targets" move across the screen to a predetermined point or line, where the player hits a button/key/mouse click as the target(s) crosses that point or line, and gets points. (Comments: 2)
- 16 Jan 2008 11:50 — "We cut your internet connection if you download" says MEP Heaton-Harris: A report on "Cultural Industries" will be adopted next Tuesday in the European Parliament (CULT committee) which is requesting the suspension of internet connections for those who download, together with mandatory internet filtering measures for ISPs all over Europe. The amendment is proposed by british MEP Christopher Heaton-Harris. Some other amendments also covers "P2P website designers". It might be a good idea to contact MEPs members of CULT and ask them to reject this intrusive proposal. (Comments: 10)
- 13 Jan 2008 07:09 — EU CREST: global business environment has changed: Crest discusses the export of the patent system: "Internationalisation of R&D - Facing the Challenge of Globalisation: approaches to a proactive international policy in S&T (Comments: 0)
- 13 Jan 2008 00:19 — European open source software companies creates OBOOE: Representatives of the European open source software industries gathered in Berlin 10th of January 2008 to found a network of European Open Source SMEs. The purpose of the network is to create a voice for the thousands of SMEs which are a currently under-represented industry and a vital part of the European economy. (Comments: 1)
- 06 Jan 2008 00:02 — MEP Doyle wants McCreevy to stay on his taxploitation course: Avril Doyle wonders why McCreevy said that "tax harmonisation is not on the agenda" and "would undermine competition". As an Irish Finance minister McCreevy benefited his nation and American IT corporations through ruininous tax competition and patent taxation dumping. Doyle wants the Irish taxploitation to stay. (Comments: 4)
- 26 Dec 2007 21:31 — FFII at the 24C3 Chaos Communications Congress in Berlin: FFII will be present at the 24C3 Chaos Communications Congress in Berlin with a dedicated booth, a speech on <NO>OOXML and a lightning talk on EU-EPLA. (Comments: 0)
- 19 Dec 2007 13:08 — Commission to rubberstamp Microsoft-Kroes patent deal today?: The agenda of the College of Commissioners of today indicates that the Commission is voting on a proceeding under art 81 of the EC Treaty. Is it the rubberstamping of the Microsoft-Kroes patent deal? (Comments: 0)
- 18 Dec 2007 13:47 — Can the EPO correct its software patent propaganda?: The EPO has a page on its website about "Computer-Implemented Inventions (CII)" where they answer the question "Why are such programs not patentable in Europe?". Unfortunately, the answer does not reflect the law, but the EPO interpretation of the law. (Comments: 0)
- 14 Dec 2007 11:55 — ECIS supporting RAND standards as open standards?: ECIS has published some comments to the "final EU Study on the specific policy needs for ICT standardisation". Here is what they say: "Members of ECIS stress that an open standard has the following characteristics: [...] • Available royalty-free or on a FRAND basis that does not discriminate against the open source software development or licensing model. (The level of royalties is highly dependent on the specific policy context and ECIS refers to its response to recommendaton 10, regarding lack of guidance on what FRAND should be taken to mean in terms of appropriate levels of royalty. ECIS additionally wishes to point out that there is significant use of royalty-free IPR licensing in software standardization.)" (Comments: 1)
- 13 Dec 2007 13:35 — NmsCommunications: 19th century solution to 21st century patent problems?: Prof. Magliocca compares 19th century problems with "patent sharks" to today's problems with "patent trolls" and suggests the only politically acceptable path out of today's problems may be the path taken out of the 19th century problems, i.e. elimination of the class of patents that triggered the problems. He provides tons of interesting context, but here's one of his proposals: "If the historical parallel between sharks and trolls rings true, then the obvious implication is that repeal is the only real answer to the troll problem. This is does not mean that we should wipe out all technology patents. A more discriminating approach would focus on the most problematic of these patents, which deal with software and business methods. Critics of the recent expansion of patent subject matter into these areas might describe this “experiment” as a disaster on a par with the design patent fiasco of the 1860s." (Comments: 0)
- 11 Dec 2007 16:21 — The EPO is already lobbying the Slovenian Presidency for EU-EPLA: The EPO will held its next European Patent Forum and European Inventor of the Year 2008 in Ljubljana. The event will be co-organised by the European Patent Office, the government of Slovenia, the Slovenian Intellectual Property Office and the European Commission. Slovenia will hold the EU Council Presidency in the first half of 2008. The EPO is already lobbying the Slovenian Presidency to get a central court to validate software patents. (Comments: 3)
- 11 Dec 2007 11:49 — Amazon patent fully revoked: skirmish victory for FFII: EPO rules for full revocation after a hearing in the opposition of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII e.V.) against Amazon.com's infamous patent on the online purchase of gifts. The patent EP927945 is a descendant of the controversial One-Click Patent, which was granted to Amazon in the USA but was partially revoked there due to lack of novelty in October 2007. (Comments: 0)
- 10 Dec 2007 13:14 — Pee R is dying: Public Relations is an entertaining art of painting with phrase clusters, but that art is dying out and invites new craftsmen to take advantage. (Comments: 0)
- 07 Dec 2007 02:31 — How to patent the Brain?: Thoughts are still free. But patenting the brain would make a real difference. (Comments: 1)
- 04 Dec 2007 14:31 — ScienceBusiness: submit proposals for patent reform in Europe: ScienceBusiness is organizing in march 2008 in Brussels an open discussion of new ideas for reforming the patent system in Europe. You can submit proposals for discussion. (Comments: 0)
- 04 Dec 2007 13:13 — MEP Roithova questions the Council of Ministers on software patents and EU-EPLA: Zuzana Roithova, czech Member of the European Parliament (EPP-ED), is questioning the Council of Ministers on the European Patent System, the Community Patent, and software patents. (Comments: 1)
- 03 Dec 2007 21:08 — Microsoft strives to censor access to proposed resolutions to comments: Microsoft has managed to get JTC1 to clamp down on information. What was a transparent process is now mired in multiple levels of security leading to delay, denial of information to some NB participants and total opaqueness to the public. (Comments: 0)
- 30 Nov 2007 15:12 — Richard Stallman on software patents and why they are a disadvantage for developers: Some of the fundamental basics any software engineer should know when thinking about how damaging the patent system is to his/her job. (Comments: 0)
- 29 Nov 2007 16:08 — Microsoft says software patents are useful for developers: Microsoft has just published a section on their website about 'Open Source'. Their Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page says software patents are useful for developers. (Comments: 0)
- 29 Nov 2007 14:28 — One Patent Per Child: Respect4IP: The One Laptop Per Child project is being sued for patent infringement over some keyboard function which allows to switch from one language to another. But the project claims that all patents used in the laptops are either owned by OLPC or properly licenced. (Comments: 1)
- 23 Nov 2007 17:56 — The Microsoft 'key' for software patents: divide and conquer: The Microsoft key to win the software patent debate is to divide and conquer. Here is how they plan to win. (Comments: 2)
- 20 Nov 2007 17:58 — New EU antitrust investigation against Microsoft: EU Commission starts working on second antitrust case against Microsoft, for abuse of its dominant position to exclude competitors from office document interoperability, the email and calendar market, and to capture the web application market. (Comments: 0)
- 20 Nov 2007 15:48 — Vintage Car Patent Trolls: George Selden vs. Henry Ford vintage car Patent trolling. (Comments: 0)
- 19 Nov 2007 09:20 — US-Peru Free Trade Agreement to require software patents?: The Free Software Foundation is warning on its frontpage that the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement is requiring a mandate for software patents. Does someone has a copy of the text? (Comments: 3)
- 17 Nov 2007 23:01 — The EPO helps companies to bypass the UK ban on software patents?: TheRegister has a story on the company InRotis, a client of Beresford, who withdrawn from the attempt to revert software patents in UK because its pending software patent was granted by the EPO. Nice way to bypass the UK ban on software patents. (Comments: 0)
- 15 Nov 2007 21:53 — How the French turned exclusive privilege into property: Exclusive privileges - patents - are a natural right, a reward for innovation, an incentive to invent, an incentive to disclose. Do these arguments sound familiar? They should: they are the arguments used by every patent advocate when they explain to us why we need, for our own sake, patents on software. What few people know is that these arguments date to the mid-19th century, when economists fought with patent advocates over the establishment of a patent system, and lost. (Comments: 0)
- 14 Nov 2007 10:12 — EPO recruiting software patent examiners: A job offer by the EPO recruiting software patent examiners appeared recently on Monster.be. But the EPO don't grant software patents. (Comments: 4)
- 12 Nov 2007 15:11 — Beresford, hacker of the European Patent Convention, trying to reverse Macrossan in UK: Keith Beresford, well known british hacker of the European Patent Convention and author of the book "Patenting Software Under the European Patent Convention", is trying to reverse the Macrossan case in front of the High Court in UK. (Comments: 7)
- 12 Nov 2007 11:03 — World Cup of CII: There is still heavy internal discussions going on whether to use the C-Word. A World Cup of CII was organized by IENA which kindly pointed to FFII ressources. (Comments: 1)
- 07 Nov 2007 17:48 — FFII Vs Amazon: EPO practice is no legal foundation: FFII has submitted its objections in writing to the Opposition division of the EPO on their preliminary ruling over the patentability of the Amazon one-click patent. The actual practice of the EPO is not a legal foundation for reasoning of the Opposition Division, article 100a EPC is. (Comments: 0)
- 02 Nov 2007 17:52 — Is Microsoft Hijacking Open Source?: An interesting commentary by Glyn Moody pointing out a pattern in Microsoft's recent actions: "the hijacking of the very concept of openness". (Comments: 0)
- 01 Nov 2007 21:46 — IEEE Spectrum Tech Alert: Patent Scorecard 2006: Quantity and concentration of patents strengthen the case for legislative reform (Comments: 2)
- 01 Nov 2007 12:13 — Finally some movement against Software Patents in the US?: Linux.com is reporting about the launch of a End of Software Patents (ESP) campaign in the United States. It seems that the group will try to reach its objective by creating caselaw at the US Supreme Court. Finally some movement against Software Patents in the US. (Comments: 0)
- 29 Oct 2007 10:34 — Commission to seek a mandate from the Council to sign ACTA: The European Commission has announced last week that they will seek a mandate to negotiate major new international anti-counterfeiting pact at the global level. The European Commission is also including strong IPR chapters in all its new generation of Free Trade Agreements with India, Korea, ASEAN and Latin America. (Comments: 1)
- 28 Oct 2007 14:46 — Microsoft strives to collect patent royalties merely for access to its protocols: In this video Mark Webbink explains how historically software was never meant to be but was patented in the US for the first time and how after the US anti-trust case Microsoft resorted to software patents as a way of legally obtaining an anti-competitive weapon. (and explains why it is heavy lobbying to legitimize their software patents in the EU, which the EPO has been granting illegaly.) (Comments: 0)
- 25 Oct 2007 10:06 — Software patents puts ZFS viability at risk?: Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, is announcing that the company is countersuing NetApp for patent infringement. NetApp is currently suing Sun for patent violation over their ZFS file system. Jonathan is asking the question whether "ZFS Puts Net App Viability at Risk?". That might be the wrong question, but at least he is thinking about patent reform. (Comments: 0)
- 23 Oct 2007 10:47 — Opinion: behind the Acacia suit: What is behind the Acacia suit against Novell and Red Hat? Is it simply perfect timing, or something more than coincidence? We explain one possible strategy behind the lawsuits. (Comments: 0)
- 23 Oct 2007 10:24 — Opinion: EU and Microsoft gang up on the GPL: As the EU snatches defeat from the slavering jaws of victory, and Microsoft cries crocodile tears, while counting its license fee chickens, we take a look at what's really happened in Brussels this week, and how it will affect the FOSS community. (Comments: 8)
- 23 Oct 2007 10:11 — FFII: EU tells open source to start paying MS patent tax: EU Commissioner Kroes' deal with Microsoft creates real dangers to Europe's growing open source economy, warns the FFII. Using patent licenses that exclude businesses, the software monopolist has turned the EU competition ruling into a victory, and now gets implicit support from the Commission to proceed aggressively against its competitors. (Comments: 1)
- 22 Oct 2007 13:42 — Microsoft finally defeats EU competition ruling with patents: Reuters reports: "Kroes personally negotiated with Microsoft President Steve Ballmer in a number of conversations including over a meal at a restaurant near her home town of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, she said. [...] They agreed that the royalties payable for the interoperability information will be [...] of 10,000 euros. The royalties for a worldwide license including patents will be [...] of 0.4 percent." This is Microsoft final victory over competitors, as FFII predicted in press release of last 17 September "Microsoft will trump EU competition ruling with patents". (Comments: 4)
- 18 Oct 2007 15:29 — FFII General Assembly next 30 November and 1st December in Brussels: FFII is organizing its annual General Assembly next 30 November in Brussels. Be there! (Comments: 0)
- 18 Oct 2007 10:44 — FFII vs Amazon: add a computer, and the EPO will give you software patents: FFII is currently opposing the Amazon one-click patent (EP927945) at the European Patent Office based on subject matter exclusion (EPC art52.2 - exclusion of computer programs from the field of patentability). This broad software patent is listed n°10 on the FFII's webshop poster and impacts any webshop running on the internet. The Opposition division made a preliminary decision last 30 July. Guess how they replied to FFII's opposition: just add a computer to your computer program, and the EPO will give you a computer program patent. (Comments: 16)
- 17 Oct 2007 15:41 — Why the Unbundling Windows Sceptics are Wrong: In this interesting article, the author, Con Zymaris, examines and dismantles the arguments provided by those who maintain that PCs should continue being sold bundled to the Microsoft Windows operative system, no matter if this practice creates a private tax to the consumer computing market and a great disturbance in such market being 95% dominated by a single vendor during the last 20 years. (Comments: 0)
- 16 Oct 2007 17:29 — The EPO webserver only works during the day: Try to make a patent search during the night hours at EPOLine, the wonderful crappy service from the European Patent Office and get nice messages. (Comments: 0)
- 16 Oct 2007 10:15 — Microsoft prefers to buy patents now: In an article published by EETimes, Marshall Phelps is mentioning that Microsoft has been busy for the last 18 months to buy patents instead of applying for them for a total amount of USD 1.4 billion. Not bad. (Comments: 0)
- 15 Oct 2007 16:59 — Software patents are just another tax: Let's replace the word tax by patents in the speech of Charlie McCreevy, ex-minister for Finances in Ireland and Commissioner for Internal Market. (Comments: 0)
- 13 Oct 2007 14:54 — EICTA unable to submit their definition of open standards: EICTA, one of the most aggressive lobby for software patents in Europe, has commented on the revision on EIFv1.0 (European Interoperabilty Framework) by saying that a RAND standard can be assimilated to an open standard. Looking at the composition of the board of the association, EICTA represents mainly the interests of Philips, Alcatel, Nokia, Ericsson, Microsoft, Siemens and similar large hardcore pro-software patents companies. (Comments: 0)
- 11 Oct 2007 17:33 — Philips educate SMEs on how to better use patents: The head of the Philips patent department has been one of the driving force behind a report ordered by the European Commission on "Removing barriers for a better use of IPR by SMEs" published in August and recently linked in the newsletter published by the European Commission's Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry. Philips, the most aggressive company when it comes to software patents, was already one of the main driver behind a similar chapter on 'how to better educate SMEs to use software patents' in the controversial report of the ICT Task Force. (Comments: 0)
- 05 Oct 2007 12:23 — Commission to force a patented standard for digital TV?: The Commission has issued a communication to the Council and Parliament on Digital TV, where they mention the problem of patents and open standards for the DVB-H standard, which is subject to a patent tax in the form of royalties collected by MPEG-LA. (Comments: 3)
- 03 Oct 2007 16:55 — Will the patent system trigger financial collapse in 2008?: House prices fall and bad debt shakes the financial markets across the US and Europe. Bankers look nervously at their portfolios of consumer debt and mortgages. But some analysts say that it's patents, not houses or loans, that will tip the global financial market into crisis. (Comments: 0)
- 01 Oct 2007 12:53 — Commission to decide on what is RAND?: Commission DG Competition has launched an investigation into the patent licensing practices of Qualcomm, which, according to complaints made by Nokia, Ericsson, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, NEC and Panasonic, did not licence its patents under "Reasonable and non-discriminatory" (RAND) terms. (Comments: 0)
- 01 Oct 2007 09:03 — Microsoft's programs MCPP and WSPP are excluding Open Source: SerNet, a German company that is providing support for Samba, is requesting Microsoft to publish the specifications for interoperability. The company also mentions that the Microsoft's programs MCPP and WSPP are excluding GPL implementations. (Comments: 0)
- 19 Sep 2007 09:13 — Google complains about trolls: Michelle Lee, Head of Google Patents and Patent Strategy, is complaining about patent trolls on their Public Policy Blog. (Comments: 0)
- 18 Sep 2007 09:22 — Microsoft will get rid of the EU antitrust with patents: Brad Smith, one of the top Microsoft lawyer, mentioned the patent strategy of the firm in order to license their patented protocols to competitors. (Comments: 4)
- 12 Sep 2007 07:24 — IBM Throws Weight Behind OpenOffice.org Project: "The OpenOffice.org community today announced that IBM will be joining the community to collaborate on the development of OpenOffice.org software." The move was partly motivated by ISO's rejection of Microsoft's Open XML (OOXML). (Comments: 1)
- 20 Aug 2007 16:32 — China and the war of patented standards: One of the reason why China is trying to develop new standards for IT is the taxes collected by foreign patent holders. (Comments: 1)
- 10 Aug 2007 17:58 — The ISO standard for corruption: Megatron continues to blast its OOXML format through the ISO process like a tank driving through a village church. Bad faith, anti-competitive, or illegal, history will decide. In the the War on Standards, the stench of bribery and corporate influence has reached the ISO secretariat. (Comments: 1)
- 09 Aug 2007 06:49 — Qualcomm found guilty of patent ambush: The Register reports that Qualcomm has been found guilty in San Diego of ambushing the H.264 video standard with undeclared patents. If this ruling is upheld, we could see the beginning of the end of patent ambushes on standards. Let the vendor beware! (Comments: 1)
- 24 Jul 2007 11:17 — EPO plans to create "European Court of Patent Appeals": According to leaked documents and the EPO's own site, the EPO is planning to separate the Board of Appeals (aka DG3) from the European Patent Office, and turn them into an independent body operating within the European Patent Convention (EPC). This looks like an attempt to move forwards with EPLA, despite a ruling from the European Parliament's legal service that this would be illegal. (Comments: 10)
- 23 Jul 2007 16:23 — "EPLA is the fuel for trolls" says IBM: Joff Wild is reporting the IBM SoftIP idea, and more interestingly, the IBM view on EPLA: "There are serious concerns that EPLA as currently proposed will be favourable to patent trolls on the one hand and a poor forum for consideration of highly valuable patents on the other." (Comments: 0)
- 16 Jul 2007 15:00 — Study shows most VC-funded software startups don't patent: In "Do Patents Facilitate Financing in the Software Industry?", Ronald J. Mann argues for software patents, but in fact tells us that 80% of new software startups have not acquired a single patent within four years of venture funding. (Comments: 0)
- 12 Jul 2007 09:59 — The past and the future of the EPO: Our Munich correspondent reports on the EPO and explains why the Commission's pressure for a Community Patent remains so important. (Comments: 0)
- 11 Jul 2007 10:02 — Product-DB and links to Internet? Pay us first.: A Swedish patent troll is asking small firms for 100.000 Eur and a cut of future revenues for using a pretty obvious database with links to Internet. (Comments: 0)
- 30 Jun 2007 00:34 — "Users Get to Decide their Document Formats"...: A Microsoft position paper explains: "Some have questioned whether ISO/IEC should ratify Open XML now that ODF 1.0 has been ratified there. It is important to appreciate that these are fundamentally different formats that meet different needs in the marketplace, and the standardization and use of one does not preclude the standardization and use of the other." (Comments: 0)
- 28 Jun 2007 00:58 — EU Council meets at EPO?: The seat of the EU Council is Brussels but often the groups meet elsewhere e.g. at the European Patent Office. (Comments: 0)
- 25 Jun 2007 09:54 — Charlie McCreevy fights on for software patents: Is EPLA dead or not? In a recent speech EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, a long time supporter of Microsoft's quest to tame the European technology market through the strategic software patenting, suggests that EPLA is still on the cards. (Comments: 0)
- 23 Jun 2007 11:31 — Al Gore: special interests outweigh public interests: "In a democracy, we have always had power exerted by special interests -- but it's out of control now," Gore said. "The special interests almost every time now outweigh the public interests, and that's dangerous for our democracy." (Comments: 0)
- 22 Jun 2007 15:10 — EPO organises a conference on software patents in Brussels: The EPO is organising a conference in Brussels the day before the 2 years anniversary of the rejection of the directive. (Comments: 1)
- 12 Jun 2007 16:04 — EPO publishes its "4 scenarios for the future": The European Patent Office has just published its online PDF version of the 4 scenarios for the future. There is no doubt that the recent struggles over the practice of the Office on software and gene patents, as well as the strikes of the examiners and the flood of patents, has pushed the President Pompidou to initiate this report. (Comments: 19)
- 11 Jun 2007 11:41 — EPO staff blame Admin Council for EPO woes: A recently report by EPO staff representatives blames the EPO Admin Council for "an attempt to weaken and even to dismantle the EPO to the benefit of national offices." (Comments: 6)
- 08 Jun 2007 22:25 — Patent Office to Test Peer Review of Computer Tech Patents: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced the launch of the Peer Review Pilot, a project that is intended to improve the process of examining applications for computer technology patents. (Comments: 1)
- 08 Jun 2007 14:55 — The STOA report needs some corrections on software patents?: The European Parliament is hosting a workshop on the Patent System next week in Brussels. The published draft report contains some part on software patents which would need some corrections. (Comments: 1)
- 05 Jun 2007 16:54 — What's the cost of specialised patent courts?: Pieter Hintjens continues his look at the costs for patent litigation across Europe, and comes up with a surprising result for what happens in countries that create specialised courts that hear only patents, the model being proposed for a single European patent court system. (Comments: 0)
- 02 Jun 2007 14:13 — Would a central European patent court save costs?: In this report we look at data on patent litigation in the EU and note that Germany, the main backer of a central patent court, accounts for 57% of cases in the EU. We note that the costs of litigation correlate strongly with the volume of cases; that Germany and the UK account for 90% of all litigation costs in the EU; and we conclude that under EPLA, the average cost of litigation could rise from 150,000 Euro to 1.5M Euro. (Comments: 0)
- 30 May 2007 17:14 — Yes, Microsoft is the threat: Mark Shuttleworth recently wrote that “Microsoft is not the real threat”. In this article I argue that Microsoft is most definitely the threat. They hold the sword at the throat of much of the IT industry. When Microsoft understands, finally, that the future belongs to the good guys, that “do no evil” is more powerful marketing than “do more evil”, that in order to have a future, a firm must not hold onto the past... then, finally, we can say that Microsoft is no longer a threat, and we can turn our full attention to the trolls and the lawyers and the bureaucrats. (Comments: 7)
- 29 May 2007 15:22 — Dogmia bites Nokia's Karmia: Nokia has been paying $500m a year to Qualcomm for patent rights. Enough is enough, says Nokia. Ironically Nokia was a staunch defender of every European's rights to defend themselves with software patents. I'm wondering how long it will take someone to argue that poor Nokia was left vulnerable exactly because the FFII beat out the Software Patents Directive... (Comments: 0)
- 22 May 2007 17:23 — What's wrong with software patents?: Inspired by some ideas presented at EUPACO-2, I'm going to try to summarise a simple set of arguments for explaining to even the most stubborn patent lawyer why patents on software simply don't fly. (Comments: 3)
- 22 May 2007 09:38 — FFII to compromise with software patent supporters?: People actually ask me such questions. The long answer involves twenty metres of garden twine, three setting poles, a pair of chopsticks, and a greased pig called Berty. The short answer is two letters long, starts with "n", ends in "o", and rhymes with "snow". (Comments: 0)
- 18 May 2007 09:04 — First report from EUPACO-2: A brief snapshot from a successful and packed event that raised more questions than it answered, but left most people agreeing on the problems of the European patent system, and some of the solutions. (Comments: 2)
- 17 May 2007 20:30 — The Economics of Examination: What is the main job of the EPO? To sell patents? Or to examine them and reject invalid patents? A close look at the economics of the examination process make it pretty clear (Comments: 0)
- 10 May 2007 12:36 — Who's on top?: Invalid EPO patents are enforceable in the UK for “business certainty”, says Lord Justice Jacob. Neither the EPO not national patent system "is on top". Meanwhile a firm pays for patents that are in opposition at the EPO. (Comments: 2)
- 08 May 2007 10:38 — German Judge Melullis speaks on software patents: German Judge Melullis has made an intervention on software patents during the 13th Symposium of European Patent Judges, organised by the EPO. (Comments: 2)
- 07 May 2007 17:34 — Linux, Dell, Novell, Microsoft... part 2: As I predicted on Digital Majority about two months ago, Dell has announced that it will offer its customers a neat package of Dell hardware, Suse Linux software, and Microsoft patents. (Comments: 0)
- 03 May 2007 09:06 — Why is EUPACO-2 important?: I asked some of the thirty-plus experts coming to speak at EUPACO-2 to explain why thought EUPACO-2 was worth the effort. Here are their answers. (Comments: 0)
- 02 May 2007 12:55 — Sharon Bowles does a good job: When you are member of the European Parliament and a patent attorney you could serve the public interest rather than the patent industry. Sharon Bowles is very proud to be on the right side. (Comments: 0)
- 01 May 2007 15:33 — US wants to change Hungarian patent regime: According to its IPR watch list USA wants EU-member state Hungary to link 'marketing approvals' for pharmaceuticals to patent infringement and announced to interfere into Hungarian affairs. (Comments: 0)
- 30 Apr 2007 17:27 — US patent system starts long slow swing back to sanity: In two rare landmark rulings the US Supreme Court bashed some sanity into “Lawyers Gone Wild Vol 15”, otherwise known as the US patent system. (Comments: 6)
- 27 Apr 2007 12:52 — Who would benefit from a European patent court?: The EPO claims on its website that "the savings in litigation costs would benefit all patent holders across Europe" in the case of the EPLA. What they do not tell you is what happens for defendants. (Comments: 0)
- 25 Apr 2007 14:49 — EPO admits that EPLA is a way to legalise software patents: David Sant, former EPO lobbyist in Brussels, is admitting that the EPLA is a new way to get software patents legalised in Europe. (Comments: 1)
- 18 Apr 2007 15:40 — The examiners are revolting: A coalition of patent examiners say that "many in the intellectual property community have come to realize that an increase in patent applications does not necessarily represent an increase in technological progress." (Comments: 1)
- 14 Apr 2007 12:42 — Photocopiers manufacturers are criminals?: EFF has launched a petition in order to prevent the criminalisation of "aiding, abetting, inciting" copyright infringements, which will sent authors of P2P software such as Bittorrent, Azureus, Apache, or Outlook in jail because those tools can be used to share copyrighted files. (Comments: 0)
- 14 Apr 2007 11:13 — When litigation costs you money, you should lobby: IPwatch has an interesting article quoting one Microsoft representative saying that companies should lobby on patent law in order to reduce their litigation costs. (Comments: 0)
- 12 Apr 2007 21:42 — Royal mentions EPO lobbying in her answer to candidats.fr: Segolene Royal, socialist candidate for the presidential french elections, mentions EPO lobbying the European Parliament in her answer to the questionnaire written by the initiative candidats.fr. (Comments: 1)
- 11 Apr 2007 14:03 — ITRE committe to vote on RAND standards: The Committee of Industry, Technology and Research will vote tomorrow thursday morning on some amendments to the Gierek's report on Innovation. Some lobbies are pushing Member of European Parliament to adopt RAND standards as Open Standards. (Comments: 1)
- 06 Apr 2007 16:16 — Oracle joins the OIN "Maginot Line" project: Oracle has joined the "Maginot Line" project, as known as the Open Invention Network, that aims to protect the Linux project against patent attackers in order to countersue. The only problem is that this stategy does not work with patent trolls. (Comments: 1)
- 06 Apr 2007 15:58 — Microsoft patent their copyrights: Microsoft spokeman is claiming today that "People patent their copyrights and everyone protects their IP and that's how the industry works." (Comments: 0)
- 05 Apr 2007 12:07 — 3,713,470 web sites named in MS lawsuit: From 1999, this satire from segfault.org predicts the use of patents to extort money from Linux users. (Comments: 0)
- 03 Apr 2007 15:26 — Spanish MEP questions the Commission on patent policy: A spanish MEP from the Socialist group, has sent a written question on patent policy to the Commission. She remembers the failed software patent directive, but she also fails to remember the lessons of the failure: fear of litigation, not fear of not having patents. (Comments: 0)
- 28 Mar 2007 07:29 — Does the European Patent Office grant software patents?: Yes, no, it depends. Do you know what is the difference between a "computer program claimed as such" and a bucket of cow manure? Yes, it's the bucket. (Comments: 0)
- 17 Mar 2007 18:34 — The future of TV: "The future is already here, it's just isn't evenly distributed", said William Gibson. The future of TV is already here, but concentrated in a few spots. (Comments: 0)
- 14 Mar 2007 09:25 — Dell about to promote Novell/SuSE Linux Desktop?: In an online survey, Dell has been asking people to express their views about whether they want to be able to buy Dell systems running Linux. We think this innocent survey (which brought Dell's servers down, as the story hit Slashdot) could just see the emergence of Linux on the desktop, from a totally unexpected angle. (Comments: 0)
- 13 Mar 2007 09:20 — The battle for the past: Computerworld reports that "Microsoft guns Open XML onto ISO fast track", despite many oppositions. Microsoft's "open" office XML "standard" will, if Redmond has its way, become an ISO standard, possibly by August. Why is Microsoft pulling out all the stops to get its obsolete binary XML format declared a "standard"? (Comments: 0)
- 11 Mar 2007 14:51 — Bill Gates for Commissioner: An American presidential campaign for Bill Gates gave up. But the European Union could grant asylum. (Comments: 0)
- 10 Mar 2007 13:44 — EU procurement: power to the supplier: The European Union Commission provides a staff working document that is an insightful document how procurement policy never ought to be. Before purchasing a solution the public authority should consult market players of what it wants to buy. No mention was given to avoidance of strategic dependencies and (open) standards policy or other strategic tools to drive procurement costs down. (Comments: 1)
- 09 Mar 2007 13:35 — Software patents and Fiscal "optimisation": Bayrou, the center right candidate for presidential elections in France, is promoting 0% of taxes for patent royalties in order to promote "small companies and inventors". According to an american investigation journalist, american companies (Google, Microsoft) are using Irish companies and the 0% of tax on patent royalties in order to escape the american fiscal authorities. (Comments: 0)
- 07 Mar 2007 08:58 — Banana Union Day: Exactly 2 years ago today the EU Council of Ministers resorted to a violation of its own procedural rules (i.e. deciding without the required majority), just to avoid taking the Parliament seriously. As calls for democratisation of the EU are gaining weight, this experience continues to be worth commemorating. (Comments: 8)
- 06 Mar 2007 15:56 — USPTO recruiting unpaid examiners: The United States Patent Office is opening a new wiki-style website on which, it hopes, people will submit prior art. FFII is skeptical. (Comments: 2)
- 04 Mar 2007 17:56 — EPLA going to the European Court of Justice?: The EP's legal service has ruled that the Community has exclusive competence to decide on a new European Patent Litigation Agreement. If Germany ignores this decision, we could see EPLA come before the ECJ. (Comments: 0)
- 03 Mar 2007 17:04 — EU-Commission: Microsoft patents on standards trivial: In response to the continuous non-compliance of EU orders Microsoft and the latest silly excuse a Commission's spokesperson openly questioned the value of Microsoft's Software Patents. (Comments: 2)
- 01 Mar 2007 20:11 — Microsoft antitrust case smells of software patents: The Commission has released today a Frequently Asked Questions page using several ambiguous wordings that might indicate some patent experts that the Microsoft case in Europe smells more and more of software patents. (Comments: 3)
- 01 Mar 2007 19:38 — EPO seeks Berlin lobbyist: How does the EPO listen to political decision makers? By lobbying Parliament. They are very committed to that task. Public awareness raising and technical assistance continue to be observed as a key role for sustainable business success of the EPO. (Comments: 0)
- 01 Mar 2007 11:07 — Jumping the Shark: Is the call for "ethical patents" weaker than "no software patents"? Has the FFII grown feeble and toothless over the last year? Are we compromising our ideals, or are we doing a triple-E (embrace, extend, extinguish) on the patent system? Have Pieter Hintjens and his cohorts "jumped the shark", or are we instead seeing the start of a wide-ranging offensive that will leave the patent extremists reeling in shock and horror as their carefully-constructed alternate reality collapses around them? (Comments: 1)
- 19 Feb 2007 17:10 — Alcatel asking USD 1.52 billion to Microsoft for MP3 usage: Alcatel-Lucent, one of the fierce proponent of software patents in Europe, is trying to extort some USD 1.52 billion from Microsoft for usage of the MPEG layer 3 audio compression algorithm. (Comments: 0)
- 19 Feb 2007 16:22 — Research Project on Intellectual Property Rights in Europe: A team of social scientists from The University of Hamburg's Centre for Globalization and Governance is conducting a research project about conflicts around intellectual property rights, taking as case study the software patent directive and the IPRED1 Fourtou directive (civil sanctions for infringements of all intellectual property rights). (Comments: 0)
- 19 Feb 2007 15:16 — There was a time when software companies hated patent law: Emery Simon, representative of the Business Software Alliance, spoke at the conference "Software and law: is regulation fostering or inhibiting innovation?" on the US situation over software patents. (Comments: 0)
- 19 Feb 2007 10:11 — You are probably not a person skilled in the art: A representative of the EPO presented the definition of a person skilled in the art according to the EPO Technical Board of Appeal definition at the last Legal Affairs conference organised by EGA (European Generics Association). (Comments: 0)
- 13 Feb 2007 22:08 — UNICE 1958 - 2007 | another scalp of the softpat struggle: Unice renamed to BusinessEurope. Unice was a strong supporter of software patenting. (Comments: 1)
- 11 Feb 2007 23:16 — Sorry Mr. Schäuble, no Microsoft-NSA gaps for you: According to the IT news service Betanews Microsoft refused to share NSA backdoor data with German Minister of Interiour Wolfgang Schäuble and insisted there are no gaps. (Comments: 0)
- 10 Feb 2007 23:47 — Measuring Innovation: Alexandre Dulaunoy writes, "Evaluating innovation in a company based on a single factor like the patent system is dangerous for everyone including the investor. At a time where the society ask for more accountability inside the companies, we really need a better system to evaluate innovation." (Comments: 1)
- 09 Feb 2007 03:51 — Commissioner Wallström narrations: What story does the EU tell? Difficult to say. But NGO activists have a lot of stories to tell about the EU. Communication Commissioner Wallström has a surprisingly contradictory message. (Comments: 0)
- 07 Feb 2007 16:34 — MS-Novell - What would you change...: SuSE Andreas Jaeger talks about the Microsoft-Novell deal. (Comments: 2)
- 06 Feb 2007 23:35 — Hugo Lueders cannot beat European vital interests: It seems as if European Institutions finally got it: Europe has to stimulate competition and serve the needs of its own SME ICT infrastructure. No more dinners with representatives from abroad. No more listening to that guy who 'represents the industry'. (Comments: 2)
- 06 Feb 2007 20:22 — Microsoft VIruSTA OneCare: The BBC reports the new Vista security tools are immature. (Comments: 0)
- 31 Jan 2007 16:06 — EPO and EPI working in a vacuum: Chris Mercer, President of the EPI (Institute of Professionals before the European Patent Office) mentioned in the proceedings of the conference "Quality Matters" that the EPO and EPI are working in a vacuum. (Comments: 0)
- 26 Jan 2007 21:06 — The EPO explains its true mission: You thought the mission of the EPO was to examine patents and grant them when valid? Confused when you saw full-page adverts from the EPO calling for software patents? Pompidou, the outgoing president of the European Patent Office, has cleared up the confusion for once and for all. (Comments: 0)
- 23 Jan 2007 11:24 — German Study: Software-SMEs think patents hamper innovation: A study "Innovation Performance of German Software Companies" finds that German software companies don't think much of patents. (Comments: 0)
- 20 Jan 2007 04:40 — Microsoft VISTA and European National Security: As leaked by the Washington Post this month the National Security Agency, a Secret Service of the United States, participated in Microsoft Vista Development. For the adoption of the product by EU governments that raises serious security concerns. (Comments: 0)
- 05 Jan 2007 23:37 — ENISA - European cybersecurity and awareness raising: ENISA, the European Cybersecurity agency, Arlene McCarthy's pet project, still is an example for an useless administrative body created by the European Union. (Comments: 0)
- 04 Jan 2007 00:05 — UK petition against Software patents: Richard Lightman started an official UK online petition. This gives UK citizens a unique and historic occasion to express their opinion on this issue. Perhaps other countries will follow this example? (Comments: 1)
- 30 Dec 2006 22:12 — Lesig: Wrong or not to be wrong: Online journalism in the lights of the US MS Antitrust case. Wired author Lessig made up his mind about 'regulation' that has been made obsolete by Linux. (Comments: 0)
- 21 Dec 2006 17:48 — Predictions for 2007 and beyond: Here are my predictions for the coming year and beyond. (Comments: 0)
- 21 Dec 2006 15:49 — MS-Novell: Free access to SuSE customer database?: According to the MS-Novell patent agreement customers of Novell products such as SuSE Linux will be indemnified against patent claims from Redmond. (Comments: 0)
- 18 Dec 2006 00:46 — CESPRI Study: Value(lessness) of Software Patents: In an economic study for the Italian CESPRI, Hall, Thoma and Torrisi find that software patents in Europe have no impact on firm market value and that they might be used mainly for strategic reason by non-software-companies. (Comments: 0)
- 14 Dec 2006 00:30 — Hurray! DG Internal Market wins Worst Privileged Access 2006: Winners of the Worst EU Lobbying Award 2006 were announced today. (Comments: 0)
- 13 Dec 2006 14:27 — The ethics of the patent system: What defines an "ethical" system? Is the profit motive all that matters? In this article, I provide an easy way of measuring whether a particular system is ethical or not. It sheds some light on the software patent debate. (Comments: 14)
- 13 Dec 2006 14:03 — The Software Trust - a new copyright model for software: Here is a modest proposal for a new form of copyright that is specifically designed for software. I call this new form of copyright the "Software Trust". Software Trust balances the needs of software developers with those of society at large (software consumers). Like traditional copyright, Software Trust is free, clearly demarked, easy to enforce. But it has a much shorter protection lifetime, and provides a proper framework for moving abandoned software into the common domain. (Comments: 4)
- 13 Dec 2006 13:42 — EPLA - the US gunships are circling: The patent industry says EPLA is a condition for US investment into Europe. What does Europe need more - US practices enforced by gunboat diplomacy, or good conditions for local businesses? (Comments: 0)
- 12 Dec 2006 15:04 — A technical analysis of EPLA and CP: Did you know that there are three different EPLA proposals? That one of the strongest supporters of EPLA is Switzerland? Fresh from the desks of the FFII's EPLA workgroup, a deep technical explanation of the Community Patent, and EPLA in all its colours. (Comments: 0)
- 10 Dec 2006 12:43 — A sustainable patent system?: Pieter Hintjens suggests that a patent system is necessary, but that the current trends are towards implosive self-destruction. He lists five steps for constructing a sustainable patent system. (Comments: 14)
- 08 Dec 2006 04:20 — IP summit 06: Reding wants Interoperability: Commissioner Reding presents her plans for Interoperability. (Comments: 0)
- 06 Dec 2006 09:56 — "Reforming US Patent Policy": A report issued by the US Council of Foreign Relations says the US patent system is misguided and is harming competitiveness. (Comments: 0)
- 02 Dec 2006 22:16 — Finnish SMEs rely on time to market and secrecy, not patents: So Microsoft and SAP claim SMEs need software patents? Past economic evidence has shown this is nonsense. The results of a project of the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA), published in November, add further empirical evidence. (Comments: 1)
- 02 Dec 2006 19:07 — GPL vs. MS-Novell: Who is incompatible: FSF has experiences with FUD targeted at the GPL. Now they use their own strategic GPL-FUD against MS-Novell. (Comments: 0)
- 01 Dec 2006 01:43 — Boston Software Patent Conference 16/17 Nov: Detailed slides for many presentations from the conference on software patents in Boston are now available. (Comments: 2)
- 29 Nov 2006 17:37 — Microsoft, BSA, SAP are now "small-to-medium" IT firms: One more day, one more scandal at the European Commission (Comments: 0)
- 23 Nov 2006 20:13 — Antitrust case against Microsoft smells software patents: Reuters published today that "if the Commission decides that the documentation is acceptable it will face the question of whether the price Microsoft plans to charge for the protocols is justified." (Comments: 0)
- 23 Nov 2006 04:20 — Novell-MS patent deal is no defense against bad laws: Market observers raise a lot of objections against the MS-Novell patent deal. But what gets hardly discussed: Upcoming legislation in the European Parliament could make the MS-Novell patent indemnification deal a "useless defense". (Comments: 4)
- 22 Nov 2006 17:39 — Bruce Perens' petition to Novell: Join Bruce Perens in signing an open letter to Novell's CEO Ron Hovsepian. (Comments: 0)
- 22 Nov 2006 12:19 — Who stole my software?: An article by Pieter Hintjens, based on a speech to the Austrian Chamber of Commerce on November 17, 2006. (Comments: 1)
- 21 Nov 2006 17:49 — Charlie McCreevy says "EPLA needs significant improvements": In a landmark speech to the EP, McCreevy says, "EPLA needs significant improvements", and "intellectual property is not just patents alone. Copyright is economically just as important." (Comments: 1)
- 15 Nov 2006 13:21 — GRUR: how to guide European Court of Justice to SW-Pats: "GRUR" arcticle: how the patent-beaucracy could guide the hand of the Euopean Court of Justice (which would have the last saying about interpretation of EPC if EC joins EPC/EPLA) along their line. (Comments: 4)
- 03 Nov 2006 18:28 — FFII EUPACO-0 conference on Nov 25, in Munich: On November 25, in Munich, the FFII launches a series of conferences aimed at building a new EU patent system. (Comments: 0)
- 02 Nov 2006 21:39 — Swedish motions against patent autocracy: Swedish members of parliament have tabled motions against software patents and for privatisation of the patent examination system, similar in spirit to demands that have been formulated by the FFII. (Comments: 0)
- 01 Nov 2006 11:41 — EU looking for "Community Instrument" instead of EPLA: Recently the EU's patent establishment has been calling for a "Community instrument" for unification of patent caselaw, and thereby distanced itself from the previously espoused EPLA text. (Comments: 2)
- 21 Sep 2006 13:51 — Patent war heats up again: EPLA in the Parliament, but experts say the software industry is not yet dead. (Comments: 0)
- 05 Sep 2006 07:51 — German court enforces MP3 patents against SanDisk: German officials seized MP3 players from SanDisk's booth at the IFA show in Berlin after an Italian patents firm won an injunction against the company. (Comments: 0)
- 02 Sep 2006 08:20 — Apple gives in to absurb patent claims: Apple licenses obvious music player patents from a small Vermont company. (Comments: 0)
- 01 Sep 2006 16:01 — Welcome to the Digital Majority: What this site is about and how it works. (Comments: 0)
page revision: 9, last edited: 12 Nov 2007 12:05