Summary: The Unified Patent Litigation System (UPLS) threatens Free software in Europe; Microsoft gets away with deceiving to pass this as law and it harms EU innovation in the process

TWO months ago we wrote about Neelie Kroes strengthening Microsoft's monopoly using software patents in Europe, where Microsoft is fighting to make these legal.

There has just been a live public broadcast which the FFII captured in full. It still requires some editing, mostly clipping.

“Kroes said Commission made a deal with Microsoft about patent last week...”
      --FFII's PresidentRemarking on this broadcast very succinctly, the President of the FFII wrote: "Kroes said Commission made a deal with Microsoft about patent last week, I need to clip that part of the video [...] Kroes was quite clueless about software patents and UPLS, she was favouring interoperability exception...

"Plenty of stuff about ACTA in the video recordings of Kroes [...] Plenty of questions about net neutrality..."

Meanwhile, over at The Register (UK), Microsoft booster Gavin Clarke advertises their software patents (yes, in the UK even). Earlier today he published this piece of promotional nonsense.

Microsoft is not growing the fastest when it comes to USPTO patent awards. That honor in 2009 went to Hon Hai Precision with a 39 per cent increase in awards, followed by LG Electronics and Cisco Systems on 32 and 30 per cent respectively. But Microsoft had a bigger portfolio.

[...]

There you have it fanbois: Those who think IBM walks on water because of the patents and IP its generously given to Linux and open-source, the mask as finally slipped. Patents to IBM are a currency it uses to get what it wants.

There he goes, giving away his agenda by calling GNU/Linux users "fanbois" in a supposedly professional publications (it all changed when Microsoft signed deals with it). Here is Clarke glorifying the law-breaking Gates, who protested against patents when Microsoft was smaller (which makes him a hypocrite). It's no secret that IBM is not a friend when it comes to software patents, so Clarke is attacking straw men.

Some of the stuff Microsoft is patenting gives reasons to grumble. Here is one patent that we mentioned last week:

Trust Microsoft to try to make money out of an oxymoron. Because that’s what putting DRM in the same sentence as P2P amounts to.

Steve and the Boyz reckon they’ve found a way to use DRM on P2P networks to distribute commercial media online.

Microsoft has turned from a company that fails to innovate to a company that actively stifles innovation, using software patents.

Over in Japan, the risk of patent war is said to be increasing, according to Reuters. Japan is one of the few (if not the only) countries in Asia that actually recognise software patents.

Japan tech needs M&A but patent war more likely

[...]

To regain their competitive edge, Japanese electronics makers should be looking to mergers and acquisitions, cost cuts and other moves to boost their market share abroad, according to government officials, investors and bankers. But veteran executives tend to be resistant to change, and the many factions found in Japanese conglomerates often slow decision making because of the value placed on consensus building.

Maybe it's good for China that Japan retards its own progress by innovating in the courtroom rather than the lab. Patents hinder innovation and promote monopolisation. It's as simple as that and it has been proven by many separate studies. ⬆