Summary: Glyn Moody responds to British Copyright Licensing Agency; The FFII formally responds to some very recent disinformation from Vincent Van Quickenborne (Belgian EU presidency)

ACCORDING TO THE "IPKat-approved" 1709 blog, last week's Open Meeting at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington (hosted by the Copyright Licensing Agency) concluded that "Intellectual Property Will Save the British Economy" and Glyn Moody says, "read these reports of people's positions, and weep..."

Moody, who leaves near these people, is at least being honest as he considers the above to be “a neo-colonialist plot to ensure the continuing dominance of Western nations.”

“The Belgian Presidency is pushing for a central EU patent court, that will create caselaw in favour of software patents.”
      --FFIITo quote part of the report, "[f]ollowing a further question as to whether 70 year copyright protection is too long, and whether the duration of protection for copyright and patents should be rethought, Louise said that if the market is looking at that, then it would be something CBI would look at."

Copyrights and patents are separate things and David Kappos (currently head of the USPTO) complained about creating "a new 20-year [patent] monopoly for no good reason.”

Further south in Brussels, things have turned sour as well, partly due to the Belgian EU presidency and Vincent Van Quickenborne in particular [1, 2, 3]. Speaking from Belgium, the FFII issues the following new press release:

In a radio interview held last Thursday, Mr Vincent Van Quickenborne, Belgian Minister of the Economy, tried to explain that the current situation concerning software patents in Europe was fine, and that the current plans are not intended to "change the patent system to make software programming more difficult". The FFII says this is wrong, considering the thousands of software patents already granted by the European Patent Office (EPO). The Belgian Presidency is pushing for a central EU patent court, that will create caselaw in favour of software patents.

There are many Europeans who are tired of seeing their systems harmed by so-called "IP" lawyers, who do not foster progress. The full press release is also appended below for increased exposure. ⬆

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Belgian EU Presidency wrong about software patents, pushing for their validation

Brussels, 5 October 2010 -- In a radio interview held last Thursday, Mr Vincent Van Quickenborne, Belgian Minister of the Economy, tried to explain that the current situation concerning software patents in Europe was fine, and that the current plans are not intended to "change the patent system to make software programming more difficult". The FFII says this is wrong, considering the thousands of software patents already granted by the European Patent Office (EPO). The Belgian Presidency is pushing for a central EU patent court, that will create caselaw in favour of software patents.

Benjamin Henrion, President of the FFII, says: "Mr Van Quickenborne is throwing dust in the eyes of software developers. The reality is that the Belgian Presidency is pushing hard for a central patent court, that will validate software patents. Large companies that were supporting the Software Patent Directive 5 years ago are now all in favour of a central patent court."

The Belgian Presidency is currently awaiting the decision of the European Court of Justice over the draft treaty creating an international patent court, a court which would sit outside of any parliament, and which would not be backed by any constitution.

Links

• Belgian EU Presidency wrong about software patents (RTBF, Matin Premiere, 30 Sep 2010)

• Software Patents through a central patent court

• EU patent system taken away from European Court of Justice

Contact

Benjamin Henrion
FFII Brussels
+32-484-56 61 09 (mobile)
bhenrion at ffii.org
(French/English)

About FFII

The FFII is a not-for-profit association registered in twenty European countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 1000 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing.