10.27.22

Let’s Put an End to Software Patents by Contacting Our Representatives (Politicians)

Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 7:25 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Video download link | md5sum 8b6a561f07ff627ef388a3271042c268
Derailing the Patent Maximalism Lobby
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: A call for participation by readers, seeing that the EFF quit doing activism in this domain and the ‘Patent Maximalism Lobby’ makes some gains by misleading ‘our’ politicians

LAST night we said we’d start releasing more information about patents, especially European software patents and the EPO, which wants to grant far more of them (we've shown leaked documents to that effect).

At the moment we need help from readers who are based in the EU and can contact their representatives, many of whom don’t know much or don’t talk — let alone comment — on these issues (or merely pretend to know and to care).

This post will be one of several as we prefer not to compromise still-ongoing engagements with politicians.

One person has asked: “If the Unified Patent Court (UPC) is illegal because a) it strictly requires the UK to be within the EU to sign and b) there are various constitutional issues confirmed by courts, then which source for (a) and (b)?”

As a first step, what is at stake?

We’ve attempted to put this clearly and concisely. This is what we came up with:

What are the key points?

1) Unified Patent Court (UPC) is illegal because:

1a) it strictly requires the UK signing (but it cannot because it left the EU)
1b) it causes various constitutional issues, some of which confirmed by courts already
1c) there was no legitimate economic analysis; it was fabricated a long time ago and those who perpetrated this fraud even said they refuse to allow any further analyses (as that would help their opponents)

Which one or two constitutional issues are more problematic? The European Parliament has a committee dedicated specifically to constitutional matters so this might be relevant to bring to them.

Hungary took this to court. It was ruled unconstitutional. We covered this many times, including 4 years ago (both 1a and 1b). Don’t let this be forgotten.

Other points to bring up

2) The European Patent Convention of 1973 protects software from patents
3) Software is managed via copyright
4) Software patents kill innovation [citation needed, e.g. Prof. Bessen, Boston University; Prof. Mark Lemley, Stanford University]

What else?

A lot more, but one must be very concise. At least try to get the politicians interested in the matter without overwhelming them (or it can become a perceived chore to them).

Who to explain these points to?

Here is the list of people, some of whom you may recognise as coming from your country. Party affiliations are not listed below, but names and contact details are included in the corresponding ‘pages’ (JavaScript):

IMCO

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197475/CHRISTINE_ANDERSON/home

ECON
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197448/RASMUS_ANDRESEN/home (sub
ITRE)

ECON
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/132191/GUNNAR_BECK/home (sub AFCO)

ITRE
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197437/NICOLA_BEER/home (sub ECON)

ITRE

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197408/HILDEGARD_BENTELE/home

ECON

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197410/STEFAN_BERGER/home

ITRE

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197449/MICHAEL_BLOSS/home

INTA

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/4267/UDO_BULLMANN/home

ITRE

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197434/MARTIN_BUSCHMANN/home

AFET

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/96739/REINHARD_BUTIKOFER/home

(sub INTA)

INTA

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/28219/DANIEL_CASPARY/home

IMCO

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/86793/ANNA_CAVAZZINI/home

sub AFCO

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197473/CHRISTIAN_DOLESCHAL/home

ITRE

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/28226/CHRISTIAN_EHLER/home

sub ITRE

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/96852/CORNELIA_ERNST/home

ECON

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197430/ENGIN_EROGLU/home

sub ITRE

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/96842/ISMAIL_ERTUG/home

ECON

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/1917/MARKUS_FERBER/home

ECON

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197480/NICOLAUS_FEST/home

AFCO

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/106936/DANIEL_FREUND/home

sub IMCO

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/229352/MALTE_GALLEE/home

IMCO

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/183916/ALEXANDRA_GEESE/home

ITRE

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/96833/JENS_GEIER/home

sub ITRE

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/124807/JENS_GIESEKE/home

sub ITRE

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197443/ANDREAS_GLUCK/home

IMCO
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197444/SVENJA_HAHN/home (sub INTA)

ITRE

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197457/HENRIKE_HAHN/home

INTA
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197481/MAXIMILIAN_KRAH/home (sub
ECON)

INTA

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197481/MAXIMILIAN_KRAH/home

INTA

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/1909/BERND_LANGE/home

sub ITRE

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197483/SYLVIA_LIMMER/home

sub INTA

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/124806/DAVID_MCALLISTER/home

ITRE

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/4289/ANGELIKA_NIEBLER/home

ITRE
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197465/NIKLAS_NIENAS/home (sub AFCO)

sub ITRE

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197466/JUTTA_PAULUS/home

ITRE

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/28224/MARKUS_PIEPER/home

sub ITRE

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/188945/DENNIS_RADTKE/home

sub ITRE

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197488/GUIDO_REIL/home

IMCO
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/229839/RENE_REPASI/home (sub ECON)

ITRE
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/206158/MANUELA_RIPA/home (sub INTA)

sub ECON

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/190517/MARTIN_SCHIRDEWAN/home

INTA, AFCO

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/96646/HELMUT_SCHOLZ/home

ECON

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/124837/JOACHIM_SCHUSTER/home

IMCO

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/28223/ANDREAS_SCHWAB/home

ECON
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197425/RALF_SEEKATZ/home (sub INTA)

INTA
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197426/SVEN_SIMON/home (sub AFET,
sub ECON)

sub AFCO

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/124834/MARTIN_SONNEBORN/home

AFET

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197451/VIOLA_VON+CRAMON-TAUBADEL/home

IMCO

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197429/MARION_WALSMANN/home

AFET

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197489/BERNHARD_ZIMNIOK/home

ITRE, IMCO, sub INTA

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/128483/MARKUS_BUCHHEIT/home

AFCO

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/197439/DAMIAN_BOESELAGER/home

(sub ECON, sub ITRE)

If you contact them, please try to keep it short, amicable, exceedingly polite, and straight to the point. They always claim they’re very busy, so they need to be ‘spoon-fed’ information.

Many people, myself included, are cynical about how politicians ‘represent’ us, but it’s better to try than not to try (I already started days ago). Yours truly is thankful that here in Europe we still have multiple political parties and people we can all contact to scrutinise power, unlike in China for instance.

If you need further information on what to tell them (or respond with), come and chat with us in IRC. We can give references aplenty. █

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