[Fsfe-ie] US Congress to Overhaul Patent Law

Ciaran O'Riordan ciaran at fsfe.org
Tue Aug 23 13:59:16 CEST 2005


> > In a first-to-file scenario the dispute between who actually

> However, the first-to-invent scenario pushes the date before which

I think it's important to remember to ignore all this though :)

We're not campaigning for a change in EPO procedures, we're campaigning for
an effective exclusion of software from patentability.

I think one mistake made too often by us was to use arguments that could be
solved without excluding software from patentability.

"these patents are trivial"
"these patents are overly broad"
 - ok, lets double the EPO's budget so they can do better review.  Happy?

We kicked up stink here about software patents and MS has twisted this to
their advantage in the US.  "Yes, the patent system is broken, even our
opponents agree.  Lets fix it.  ...in a way that allows us to crank 'em out
faster and cheaper and makes 'em harder to invalidate unless you have a
legal team the size of ours".

If an MEP ever mentions first-to-file, we have to stop them and inform them
that that has nothing to do with what we're talking about.  (no?)

-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan,                               |  Support FSFE's work against
http://www.compsoc.com/~coriordan/              | software patents by becoming
                                                |    a Fellow: http://fsfe.org



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