Danish Referendum on the Unified Patent Court

Carsten Agger agger at modspil.dk
Thu Jan 16 16:01:34 UTC 2014


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PS:

This, of course, is the original illustration of what might go wrong
with the Unified Patent:

http://webshop.ffii.org/


On 01/16/2014 05:00 PM, Carsten Agger wrote:
> There is to be a referendum in Denmark on the Unified Patent
> Court, which will be a single patent authority for  European
> countries (I believe some non-EU countries participate, while Italy
> and Spain have declined)
> 
> http://www.euractiv.com/eu-elections-2014/danish-government-confirms-eu-re-news-532513
>
> 
> 
> 
> The Danish free software/digital rights community as embodied e.g.
> in It-Politisk Forening (http://www.itpol.dk, IT-Political
> Association of Denmark) of which I am a member, is recommending a
> NO to the UPC.
> 
> This is because while software patents are (I believe) not allowed
> in European patents, the European-level courts have adopted a far
> more permissive stance than our local patent office, which means
> that accepting the UPC will result in many more software patents
> being enforceable in Denmark.
> 
> All political parties support the UPC and favour a YES at the 
> referendum, except the far-right Danish People's Party (DPP) and
> the left-wing Enhedslisten (EL).
> 
> Whereas DPP oppose the UPC on grounds of national sovereignty, EL
> have argued against giving large corporation an uncontrollable (by
> us in Denmark, or people outside the EU bureacracy) monopoly on
> ideas to large corporations. Interestingly, they have explicitly
> mentioned the threat from software patents currently acknowledged
> on the European level but not by our local system.
> 
> I've been invited to a meeting next Monday, and I think I will ad
> the support of our local FSFE group on the "NO" side. The reasoning
> is, once again: We do not want any software patents, and we believe
> this unified patents may easily become a means for introducing
> software patents on the European level.
> 
> On the other hand, a Danish "NO" might be a good starting for a 
> general campaign for a complete ban on software patents on the 
> European level.
> 
> I don't think I have links to a good analysis in English, but
> people might try Google translating this one: 
> http://www.itpol.dk/notater/enhedspatent-og-softwarepatenter-erhvervsudvalg-jan13
>
> 
> 

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