12.01.11
Software Patents Come to Europe Through the Back Door
Summary: Despite seemingly democratic structures, the EPO and its ilk manage to sneak in a restructuring of the patent systems in Europe
Early in the week we found some troubling news about software patents in Europe. Gérald Sédrati-Dinet says about the unitary patent that “approval is planed for Dec 5, Dec 22 is the ceremony”
“Even worse,” Ben jamin responds. He thought it was something more benign in comparison:
Unitary Patent to be approved by the Council next 22 December with a signature ceremony.
He carried on arguing [1, 2, 3, 4] while patent lawyers from Germany got baffled: “Why does the #EU webpage showing the time schedule for agreement on Unified Patent Court not work any more?”
There is a discussion about software standards inside patents [1, 2] and the lawyers’ powwow [1, 2, 3, 4] gravitates towards the position that within a few days we may have a rather troubling presentation:
EPO presentation about the Unitary Patent, the patent system designed outside Europe and its institutions ur1.ca/66vqa
December 5th is named as the big day and it is the same day that I fly away for a week (for vacation). Hopefully there are many European activists out there who will inform others and do something to stop this. █
Michael said,
December 1, 2011 at 7:59 pm
If patent laws are becoming more consistent this is a *good* thing, not a bad thing.
Para-Doxe Reply:
December 2nd, 2011 at 6:46 am
What is a good things to give all power to OEB to decide what is patentable, to accept patents and to judge conflicts with judges they choose outside any democratic control?
Michael Reply:
December 2nd, 2011 at 10:59 am
I merely noted it is a good thing if the rules become more consistent. Products are not marketed to a single country but to the whole of the developed world. If the laws are roughly the same then companies can focus more on making products and less on having to make concessions for each country.