Patent offices are a funny sort of 'organism'. They treat patents like business and the more patents (monopolies) they approve, the more money they can make. These organisations begin to justify their own existence by accentuating and emphasising their supposedly important role even when it harms the public. The USPTO offers plenty of examples of that and people sometimes die because of them (notable examples relate to drug treatment). The EPO has a blog now (who hasn't?) and it goes on in MBA-speak about "Improving the patent system" (which means improving it for the EPO, not for the public). "EPO to go lobby physically MEPs and EU Ministers to become the institution outside the control of Parliament" is how the president of the FFII interprets this post and David Hammerstein, a former European member of parliament, writes:
Preparation for new EU framework for research and innovation in 2013. European Patent system. New financing mechanism. Remove bottlenecks
The European Parliament wants to make software producers liable for defects. Ahead of the vote on the Consumer Rights Directive on Thursday 24 March, a political agreement amongst the groups in the European Parliament would put software and webservices providers liable for damages under the goal of providing consumer protection.
"During the software patent debate we underlined that Data processing is no field of technology", explains FFII president Benjamin Henrion. "The physical world is different from the digital environment". He continues: "Similar to the software patent directive, it is another piece of legislation that makes software development a much more risky business".
Kariblink Digital, a local based web firm aims to patent software it has already developed to 'Whiplash' piracy by instantly shutting down illegal online rebroadcasters.
The firm currently awaits a response from the international copyright body having already paid the requisite fees.