Mary Harney has given a speech launching a brochure on Ireland's priorities for the Competitiveness council:
http://dbs.cordis.lu/cgi-bin/srchidadb?CALLER=NHP_EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&S...
The brochure itself (16 page pdf) is at http://www.eu2004.ie/templates/document_file.asp?id=2054
Two, almost identical, instances of the word 'software', page 6:
A knowledge-based economy must have effective instruments and laws to protect and promote investment in research and innovation. The enforcement of intellectual property rights, a common regime for the community patent, community trade mark regulations, and the *protection of software inventions* form an important underpinning to the research and knowledge-based economy. We will ensure that progress is made in these areas, which play an essential part in supporting our adjustment to new and higher value economic activities.
and page 12:
A knowledge-based economy must have effective instruments and laws to protect and promote investment in research and innovation. A harmonised approach to enforcement of intellectual property rights, EU wide protection of patents afforded by a community patent, and the *protection of software inventions*, form an important underpinning of the research and knowledge-based economy. We will ensure that progress is made on these areas which play an essential part in supporting our adjustment to new and higher value economic activities. The Community Patent is important for European industry and must be available to firms at reasonable cost. The Irish Presidency will make every effort to ensure its adoption. With a view to completing the internal market in the area of intellectual property rights, an important initiative is the Directive on enforcement which aims to harmonise enforcement measures in respect of those IP rights which have already been substantively harmonised at Community level. It is the intention of the Irish Presidency to make every effort to achieve a common position within the Council on this initiative.
Is this a new linguistic formula to look out for, emphasising the "protection" of software inventions, and leaving carefully blurred the question of whether this requires "patent protection" or "copyright protection" ?
Perhaps if we have a friendly Irish journalist they could try to find out for us ?
All best,
James.
On Fri 09 Jan 2004 18:50, James Heald wrote:
Is this a new linguistic formula to look out for, emphasising the "protection" of software inventions, and leaving carefully blurred the question of whether this requires "patent protection" or "copyright protection" ?
Note the assumption that software is an invention in the first place, which is something I know I disagree with in itself. If people start thinking software is "invented", rather than "written" (as I as a mathematically literate software developer think of it), then it will be much easier to argue for patenting.
James Heald j.heald@ucl.ac.uk writes:
http://dbs.cordis.lu/cgi-bin/srchidadb?CALLER=NHP_EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&S...
community patent, community trade mark regulations, and the *protection of software inventions* form an important underpinning
A knowledge-based economy must have effective instruments and laws to protect and promote investment in research and innovation. A harmonised approach to enforcement of intellectual property rights, EU wide protection of patents afforded by a community patent, and the *protection of software inventions*, form an important underpinning of the research and knowledge-based economy. We will
Dissapointing words.
I'm drafting a letter for her and her associates at the moment. I've only just started, but I'll post what I have mid-saturday.
Given the buzzwordiness of "competitiveness" at the moment, I'll highlight the need for software to be interoperable for it to be competitive.
(other focuses are the amount of currently legal software that will suddenly become illegal, the need for Irish govt & industry to be able to implement it's own software security unhindered, and with the amount of good reports the EU have recently produced regarding Free Software, I think it's finally time to give it a mention.)
Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
(other focuses are the amount of currently legal software that will suddenly become illegal, the need for Irish govt & industry to be able to implement it's own software security unhindered, and with the amount of good reports the EU have recently produced regarding Free Software, I think it's finally time to give it a mention.)
I think another powerful point is the US Federal Trade Commission's very critical report on software patents. Many European governments seem to look to the US for direction on matters of technology and innovation, and perceive this direction to be one of increasingly relaxed control over what may be patented. The FTC report is a useful antidote to this.
See http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/10/innovationrpt.pdf.
Ian.
Hi Ciaran, Hi List
I've converted pages 14 of the Competiveness Council Priority Paper in to HTML, to get my head around some kind of time-table. I know we'll have to cook stuff on the fly but wonder if you know of any important dates / events for which we need prepare ?
The last event listed is the Copyright Conference and is not until 21/22-06-04. Is this event planned as a pre or post directive enforcement conference for instance. I know that you are pushed out producing content - If you put the key dates on-list, I'll do the HTML.
-- Adam M
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" summary="European Competitiveness Council: Council Meetings arranged by date, title, venue, and organiser"> <tr> <th colspan="4" scope="colgroup">Council Meetings</th> </tr>
<tr> <th scope="col">Date</th> <th scope="col">Title</th> <th scope="col">Venue</th> <th scope="col">Organiser</th> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">11-03-04</td> <td>Competitiveness Council</td> <td>Brussels</td> <td>Department of Enterprise Trade & Employment</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">17/18-05-04</td> <td>Competitiveness Council</td> <td>Brussels</td> <td>Department of Enterprise Trade & Employment</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">25/26-03-04</td> <td>European Council</td> <td>Brussels</td> <td>Department of Taoiseach</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">17/18-06-04</td> <td>European Council</td> <td>Brussels</td> <td>Department of Taoiseach</td> </tr> </table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" summary="European Competitiveness Council: Informal Ministerial Meeting arranged by date, title, venue, and organiser"> <tr> <th colspan="4" scope="colgroup">Informal Ministerial Meeting</th> </tr>
<tr> <th scope="col">Date</th> <th scope="col">Title</th> <th scope="col">Venue</th> <th scope="col">Organiser</th> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">25/27-04-04</td> <td>Competitiveness Council</td> <td>Co. Clare</td> <td>Department of Enterprise Trade & Employment</td> </tr> </table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" summary="European Competitiveness Council: Meetings of Technical Groups in Ireland arranged by date, title, venue, and organiser"> <tr> <th colspan="4" scope="colgroup">Council Meetings</th> </tr>
<tr> <th scope="col">Date</th> <th scope="col">Title</th> <th scope="col">Venue</th> <th scope="col">Organiser</th> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">25/26-01-04</td> <td>High Level Group on Competiveness & Growth</td> <td>Dublin</td> <td>Department of Enterprise Trade & Employment</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">1/2-04-04</td> <td>The Committee for Scientific and Technical Research (Crest)</td> <td>Galway</td> <td>Department of Enterprise Trade & Employment</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">1/2-04-04</td> <td>The Joint Research and Atomic Question Group (CRG)</td> <td>Galway</td> <td>Department of Enterprise Trade & Employment</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">16-04-04</td> <td>Enabling Grids for E-Science and Industry in Europe<br /> High Level Meeting (EGEE)</td> <td>Dublin</td> <td>Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">19 to 23-04-04</td> <td>Enabling Grids for E-Science and Industry in Europe<br /> Technical Meeting (EGEE)</td> <td>Cork</td> <td>Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row"><abbr title="To be decided">TBC</abbr> May</td> <td>European Platform for Biodiversity Research Strategy Meeting</td> <td><abbr title="To be decided">TBC</abbr></td> <td>Environmental Protection Agency</td> </tr> </table>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" summary="European Competitiveness Council: Conferences and Seminars in Ireland arranged by date, title, venue, and organiser"> <tr> <th colspan="4" scope="colgroup">Conferences and Seminars in Ireland</th> </tr>
<tr> <th scope="col">Date</th> <th scope="col">Title</th> <th scope="col">Venue</th> <th scope="col">Organiser</th> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">30-01-04</td> <td>Judicial, Administrative and Financial meeting of COST (Coordination of Science and Technology)</td> <td>Dublin<br /> <abbr title="To be decided">TBC</abbr></td> <td>Enterprise Ireland</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">15/16-02-04</td> <td>Research Excellence in the ERA Seminar</td> <td>Dublin</td> <td>Forfas / Department of Enterprise Trade & Employment</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">4/5-03-04</td> <td>World Class Manufacturing in Europe Conference</td> <td>Dublin</td> <td>Enterprise Ireland</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">15-03-04</td> <td>European Consumer Event</td> <td>Dublin</td> <td>Department of Enterprise Trade & Employment</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">27-04-04</td> <td>Dynamic Regions Conference</td> <td>Limerick</td> <td>Shannon Development</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">29-04-04</td> <td>Competition Day</td> <td>Dublin</td> <td>The Competition Authority</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">25-05-04</td> <td>Launch of expertiseireland.com</td> <td></td> <td>InterTradeIreland</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">26/28-05-04</td> <td>Innovation for small Firms, Strengthening the Regional Economy</td> <td>Donegal</td> <td>Letterkenny Institute of Technology, Donegal County Enterprise Board</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">3/4-06-04</td> <td>Consultation Conference on Framework Proposals and SMEs</td> <td>Dublin</td> <td>Enterprise Ireland</td> </tr>
<tr> <td scope="row">21/22-06-04</td> <td>Copyright Conference<br /> <abbr title="To be decided">TBC</abbr></td> <td></td> <td>Department of Enterprise Trade & Employment</td> </tr> </table>
<p>Note: This calender is provisional and may change. For further information visit the <a href="http://www.eu2004.ie/">Ireland EU Presidency 2004</a> web site.</p>