Ireland backing software patents - PLEASE READ

jmason

Urgent action is needed -- next month, the European Patent Office (EPO)
intends to legalise software patents in Europe. It also appears that the
Irish Patent Office supports this move.

This has serious implications for the future of e-commerce and the web in
Ireland and the rest of Europe, especially when produced by individuals
and SMEs.

WHY SOFTWARE PATENTS ARE NOT A GOOD THING

If you're not convinced of the dangers of legalising software and
business-method patents, just take a look at what's already been patented
in the US.

- The most famous example so far has been Amazon's patent on "one-click
ordering", ie. using a cookie to reference a database entry containing a
user's name, address and credit card details.

- close behind would be BT's claim to have "hyperlinks", <a href> tags,
patented; apparently they are already seeking license fees in the US
from several large ISPs.

- Amazon also hold a patent on affiliate programs between websites.

- The W3C standard for privacy protection, P3P, was delayed for several
years by a patent filed by a company called Intermind.

- A company called Geoworks claims to hold patents on several key aspects
of WAP.

- Alcatel hold a patent on "auctioning over an electronic medium".

- providing training and examinations over the internet seems to be
patented.

There are many more at: http://www.freepatents.org/examples/ and linked
from http://petition.eurolinux.org/ .

Note that patents can be overturned, provided "prior art" (published,
dated examples of prior use of the technique) can be found, and a legal
challenge is mounted. But legal recourse is not cheap, especially for
individuals and small companies.

The alternative is that every technique (even the most trivial) that you
use to build a site or design software could turn out to be patented,
requiring you to either fight the patent, drop the project, or pay license
fees.

WHAT TO DO

Show support by signing the petition at http://petition.eurolinux.org/ --
500 Irish people, and over 50,000 other Europeans, have already done so.

Write to the Irish patent office, pointing out that you do not support the
legalisation software patents in Europe, and that you would instead prefer
to see the current loopholes in the legislation closed.

Visit http://linux.ie/patents/ for more details.

If you can think of other mailing lists or forums that it would be useful
to send this mail to, please forward it freely.

Thanks,

Justin, and the Irish Linux User's Group

[This message has been edited by jmason (edited 24-10-2000).]

MiCr0

welcome to the boards, linux.ie readers

jmason

Well, they've certainly grown a
bit since the last time I saw 'em

dogs

Before you warm up the flamethrowers...

I don't see what's wrong with Software Patents. The ones you listed are
perfect examples of dumb patents, that could easily be avoided with some
form of expert review.
If software patents were treated as just that, different from real physical devices, so they would expire after, say
3 years then I think it could really benefit us all. Patents allow a company to pour $$$ into a research project with some chance of making some of it back.
And because it's patented it would mean that its operation is fully documented, so you could write your own version (for your own personal use) ? (IANAL).
Plus interoperability woes could be a thing of the past...
...just some thoughts.