12.28.11
Commissioner Barnier: Enemy of European Development
Summary: Naming the leading culprit among European politicians that let Europe be contaminated by foreign monopolies
TECHRIGHT wrote quite a lot about Commissioner Barnier because he took a leading role in the push for unitary patent, which ushers in software patents. Currently, Barnier is the main politician threatening to indirectly bring software patents to Europe. He is an enemy of science and technology, but then again, he is neither a scientist nor a technologist. Almost no politician is really aware of those disciplines. Watch Michel Barnier saying: “A few more days needed to cross the finishing line. 22nd December: I am confident we’ll be able to sign final agreement then.”
What a clown. This is the ‘gift’ he wishes to give people for Christmas? The loss of their sovereignty? The patent lawyers love him and quote him: “#Barnier: Spain and Italy still don’t support #unitarypatent”
Utter nonsense. We wrote about this before. He says what he wants to be true, not what is true.
The president of the FFII says:
a central patent court means EU software patents. Patent judges will do the job, as they did in the UK and DE.
Later he wrote that the “Unitary Patent gives a free ride to the patent microcosm, it will die on its own once it will be tested in front of the ECJ”
“EU Patent policy is cursed. Always the same stupid mistakes,” writes the FFII and the “European Patent Court – Disaster before Christmas” is one suitable headline. The president of the FFII rants that:
When it comes to patents, the EU finds itself a way not to respect the Fundamental Rights written in the Lisbon Treaty
Here is what lawyers are saying and what ceptics are saying: “FICPI Says “Go Slowly” on Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court”
“Software patents are not even for the “one percent”; those benefiting from them are far fewer than one percent of the population.”Sooner or later we might see some US-based patent trolls coming to Europe, assuming we cannot hold back the tide of corporate power. People who help companies gain patents do not seem to care if they end up abused even by patent trolls/lawyers. As Masnick puts it: “There was a recent post on the Patent Examiner blog about yet another patent troll who’s been suing a ton of companies with a variety of patents. Among recent lawsuits there was one against General Motors, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, BMW of North America, Rolls-Royce, Hyundai, KIA and ATX Group for using GPS systems to track cars, and two more against AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Nextel, MetroPCS, T-Mobile and others over patents 7,852,995 and 7,860,225, titled “Method and apparatus for selectively providing messages in telecommunications systems.”
At stake when it comes to the unitary patents are not just software patents but also patent trolls. There is absolutely no reason for European citizens to support this thing, unless they are patent lawyers or CEOs at one of the multinationals. Software patents are not even for the “one percent”; those benefiting from them are far fewer than one percent of the population. █
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