[offtopic] Software and business method patents: call for action

[Halbersztadt Jozef (jothal)]

This info I would like to put to your attention as you seem to be
right audience. Please forward the message to other colleagues.

As we already started to explain in Warsaw.

http://techrights.org/2015/11/05/copycamp-15-on-swpats/

The rejection of in the 2005 proposed European Directive for “Computer
Implemented Inventions” did not mean that Europe is free from software
patents. It is far from true. The rejection only meant that some –
questionable – rules for software patenting were not accepted as
obligatory.

The current situation is worse than ten years ago because courts in
European countries are not setting proper limits on software
patentability. We would like to talk about Polish bad and good
examples, which remain unknown.

On the other hand, recent developments in the US are encouraging.
After two important Supreme Court decisions in almost all software
patents related cases courts voided the patents. It cannot happen in
the EU. Unfortunately, no appeal to some non-specialised “supreme”
court is foreseen in the new European patent court structure. The
European Court of Justice was excluded from the system.

Europe should not stay behind the US. Two year ago the German
Parliament unanimously decided upon a joint motion to limit software
patents urging the government to take measures in this sense. In the
German MPs’ opinion, supported by several associations, including
FSFE, software should be covered exclusively by copyright, and the
rights of the copyright holders should not be devalued by third
parties’ software patents. Can we have similar resolution in the
European Parliament? What action we need from German Government and
European Commission?

https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130612-01.en.html

There are other initiatives against the Unitary Patent seen as the
third major attempt to legalize software patents in Europe.
http://www.esoma.org/forum/t-1162188/unitary-patent-challenged-at-the-belgian-constitutional-cour

There is a clear need to return to a wider action against software
patents. If you would like to contribute, please contact us. In the
first place we have submitted a lecture at 32C3 – day 2, 28.12, 14:00,
hall 6.

https://events.ccc.de/congress/2015/Fahrplan/events/7283.html

Co-authors of the talk are Benjamin Henrion, president of FFII - an
organisation that in the debate about European software patents gained
some influence on the legislative process, Iga Balos assistant
professor who is writing a study on Polish court software patent
cases, and me, who pulled them together.

Best regards
Jozef Halbersztadt

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jozef [dot] halbersztadt [at] gmail [dot] com
Internet Society Poland http://www.isoc.org.pl
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