Microsoft Pushing Hard for Software Patents in Europe While Halliburton Makes British/European Patent Lawyers Happy

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2011-10-12 18:10:40 UTC
Modified: 2011-10-12 18:10:40 UTC

Tower bridge

Summary: The patent parasites are at it again, trying to turn Europe into a hostile ground to software developers (with little help from Halliburton)

"Microsoft now pushing for software patents in Europe through the Unitary Patent," warns the President of the FFII in his message about this new posting from Microsoft. When Microsoft wants the EU Patent, then everyone knows for sure that the EU Patent is for multinationals and a threat to software freedom. This was obvious to almost everyone, but patent lawyers tried to hide it. Microsoft front groups which pretend to represent small companies tried to hide this too.

"The President of the FFII wishes to organise protests soon."Over in the UK, a big discussion erupted following what Halliburton had done [1, 2]. Patent lawyers absolutely love it. To quote one from Marks & Clerk: “the High Court has made it crystal clear that an invention relating to a process for designing drill bits is neither just a computer program nor a mere mathematical method. It provides something technical – a drill bit design process – outside both of these exclusions.”

The lawyers community has a lot more to say about it (paywall warning) and we are not sure what to do against this decision other than point out its danger to software developers in Europe. The President of the FFII wishes to organise protests soon. ⬆

Comments

Michael

2011-10-12 20:20:05

Tech is not multinational. It would make sense to have multinational rules. Having different rules means any large product has to apply multiple sets of rules and regulations which may or may not conflict with each other. Madness.

This does not imply I approve of any one set of rules - but it does make sense to work toward having greater consistency.

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Microsoft Pushing Hard for Software Patents in Europe While Halliburton Makes British/European Patent Lawyers Happy

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