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263 lines
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<title>Software Patents in Europe</title>
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<meta content="Information about software patents - a problem for companies, developers and users." name="description" />
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<meta content="computer implemented inventions software patent law copyright ideas computer program compatibility and interoperability companies software developers users non-free Free Software legal uncertainty costs pay smartphones" />
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</head>
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<body>
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<p id="category"><a href="/activities/activities.html">Our Work</a></p>
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<h1>Software Patents in Europe</h1>
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<div id="introduction">
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<p>
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We are working towards a world where software does <em>what software
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users want it to do</em>. For this, software users must be able to
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participate in the development and distribution of the software.
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Software patents block this goal by adding <em>legal and financial
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risks</em> to software development and distribution and by giving the
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patent holders legal power to completely prohibit software developers
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from using the patented ideas.
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</p>
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</div>
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<p>
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To understand how patents work, it is important to realise that
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they have almost nothing in common with copyright. While
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copyright is granted on the the work of an author, such as a
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computer program, patents are granted on ideas that could be
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used inside a computer program. So when thinking of patents,
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think of "symphony combining wind and string instruments" and
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not "Beethoven's 2nd symphony."
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</p>
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<h2 id="about">A problem for everybody</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>Software patents add legal risks, and therefore costs, to software
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development.</li>
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<li>They specifically inhibit the development of useful software by
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blocking compatibility and interoperability.</li>
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<li>Patents are incompatible with software because software is
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so complex - too many ideas are used for it to be practical to
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count them and check them against existing patents</li>
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</ul>
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<p><a href="http://en.swpat.org/wiki/All_businesses_are_targets">Software
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patents are a problem for everybody </a>, no matter if big or small
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companies, individual software developers, users, non-free or Free Software.
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>The <em>companies</em> have to spend more money for their legal department, to
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register patents, to negotiate patent crosslicensing, and to defend
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themselves against patent claims. While for some time software patents were
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a nice tool for big companies to prevent newcomers from competing with them,
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they also have to face companies who only sue others on software patents,
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and never do any software development by themselves. Against them, any
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software company can only loose.</li>
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<li>For <em>software developers</em> software patents mean legal
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uncertainty: whenever you start programming you might violate patent law. You will
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never be able to find out if you violate a patent. Even if you read a
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software patent you might not realise it covers what you are currently
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implementing. With patents, we have to pay money to register them. On the
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other hand with copyright, everyone of us, even those who just program as a
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hobby, can write a program, and afterwards it will fall under copyright
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without any additional costs. In fact, software patents can dispossess us
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as they can prevent from using the rights we get from copyright, e.g. to
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distribute the program to others. </li>
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<li><em>Users</em> would have to pay for all those costs. Some people
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estimate that the patent costs for smartphones are about 20% of the actual
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price payed by the customer. </li>
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</ul>
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<h2 id="status">The current status</h2>
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<p> The <a
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href="http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/html/epc/2013/e/ar52.html"> European Patent Convention states that software is not patentable</a>.
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But laws are always interpreted by courts, and in this case interpretations
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of the law differ. So the European Patents Office (EPO) grants software
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patents by declaring them as "computer implemented inventions". We will
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continue to work with our <a href="/about/fsfnetwork.html">sister
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organisations </a>, our <a href="http://www.ffii.org">associated
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organisation FFII</a>, and others to inform people about the dangers of
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software patents. We will explain the legislative that they have to make
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the laws more precise so that the patent offices have to act as intended.
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We will continue to get rid of that problem. </p>
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<p>In the US our sister organisation is working to <a
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href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/software-patents-after-bilski">build
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awareness to the harm caused by software patents</a> and in New Zealand
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the government understood the problem and <a
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href="http://news.swpat.org/2010/03/new-zealand-govt-against-software-patents/">recommended
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in April 2010 to include computer programs amongst inventions that may not be
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patented</a>. </p>
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<h2 id="actions">Selected FSFE actions</h2>
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<!-- the following artciles should be tagged and added as related articles -->
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<!--
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<p>From 2004 to 2005 we wrote open letters about software patents addressed
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to <a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20040510.html">all citizens of Europe</a>,
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<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20040531.html">the German President Prof.
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Köhler</a>, <a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20040706.html">Fraunhofer
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Gesellschaft (FhG)</a>,
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<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20040802.html">IBM</a>, <a
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href="/activities/swpat/letter-20040906.html">the Dutch prime
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minister</a>, <a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20041004.html">Allianz
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Group</a>, <a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20041101.html">Mr
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Barroso</a>, <a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20041206.html">President of
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the European electricity industry Hans Haider</a>,
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<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20050103.html">Mr LEE Jong-wook</a>, <a
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href="/activities/swpat/letter-20050207.html">Nout Wellink is the Chairman
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of the Board of Directors and President of the International Bank
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Settlements</a>, <a
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href="/activities/swpat/letter-20050307.html">Catherine Parmentier Chief
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Executive Officer of EUROCITIES</a>, <a
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href="/activities/swpat/letter-20050405.html">Mr Provoost president of
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EICTA</a>,
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<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20050502.html">Charlie McCreevy</a>, and
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<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20050606.html">Josep Borrell Fontelles,
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President of the European Parliament</a>.</p>
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-->
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<!-- the following things should be removed and the tagged news added. -->
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<ul>
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<li><p><strong><a href="/news/2013/news-20130612-01.html">German Parliament
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tells government to strictly limit patents on software</a></strong> On
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Friday the 7th of June the German Parliament decided upon a joint motion to
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limit software patents (see English translation by BIKT). The Parliament
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urges the German Government to take steps to limit the granting of patents
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on computer programs. Software should exclusively be covered by copyright,
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and the rights of the copyright holders should not be devalued by third
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parties' software patents. The only exception where patents should be
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allowed are computer programs which replace a mechanical or electromagnetic
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component. In addition the Parliament made clear that governmental actions
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related to patents must never interfere with the legality of distributing
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Free Software.</p></li>
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<li><p><strong><a href="/activities/swpat/current/unitary-patent.html">EU: the
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unitary patent</a></strong></p></li>
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<li><p><strong><a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20101222.html">Letter to German
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competition authorities - 2010-12-22</a></strong> Free Software Foundation Europe's
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concerns regarding the acquisition of Novell's patents by CPTN Holdings</p></li>
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<li><p><strong><a href="/activities/ipred2/ipred2.html"> 2007-present: IPRED2
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- The Criminalisation Directive</a></strong> A proposal has been made
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by the European Commission to criminalise and increase the penalties and
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invasive investigative measures for patents, copyrights, trademarks, and
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all other laws lumped together by the term "<a
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href="/activities/wipo/iprip.html">Intellectual Property</a>". It looks like
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patents will now be excluded from this directive, but the legislative
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process is still ongoing and there are many other harmful aspects of this
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directive that must be corrected.</p></li>
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<li><p><strong><a href="/activities/gplv3/gplv3.html">2006-2007: Version 3 of
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the GNU GPL</a></strong>: During the 18 month public consultation for
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the drafting of GPLv3, FSFE worked to assist community participation.
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Among other benefits, GPLv3 offers better protection for free software
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developers against patent litigation. Our licences can only solve a small
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part of the harm of software patents, but they can make free software
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development easy in some ways.</p></li>
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<li><p><strong><a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/ciaran/?p=49">
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2006-July-12th: Participation in EC hearing</a>:</strong> Ciaran
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O'Riordan represented and made a statement on behalf of FSFE at this
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hearing organised by the European Commission on the future of the patent
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system.</p></li>
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<li><p><strong><a href="/activities/swpat/fsfe-patstrat-response.html">
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2006-March-31st: Response submitted to EC patent
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questionnaire</a></strong>: FSFE has submitted its response to the
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European Commission's questionnaire titled "On the patent system in
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Europe".</p></li>
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<li><p><strong>2005-July-6th: Software Patent Directive Dropped</strong>:
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After years of struggle, the European Parliament finally rejected the
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software patent directive with 648 of 680 votes.</p></li>
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<li><p><strong><a href="/activities/swpat/second-reading-bullets.html">
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2005-July-1st: Bullet Points on the Second Reading</a></strong>: One
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week before the second reading vote by the European Parliament, FSFE sent a
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simplified explanation of the core areas of confusion. This was delivered
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in six languages which were produced on short notice by the FSFE
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translation team. </p></li>
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<li><p><strong><a href="/activities/swpat/memorandum.html"> 2005-June-28th:
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Karlsruhe Memorandum</a></strong>: The Free Software Foundation Europe
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has published, on June 28th 2005, the Karlsruhe Memorandum against software
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patents. This memorandum collected more than 200 signatures at this year's
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GNU/LinuxTag conference in Karlsruhe. Citing scientific evidence, the text
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argues that software patents in Europe will hurt jobs and innovation. Among
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the supporters are leaders of some of Europe's biggest trade union groups.
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All MEPs received a copy of this.</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h2 id="subpages">Navigation</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>
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<h3><a href="/activities/swpat/background.html">Basic information</a></h3>
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<p>
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What are patents, what are software patents, and why would anyone want them?
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</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<h3><a href="/activities/swpat/documents.html">Background documents</a></h3>
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<p>
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How do software patents influence very different areas of society and economy?
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</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<h3><a
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href="http://en.swpat.org">End Software Patents</a></h3>
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<p>
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Goal of this website is to build an information resource for campaigns against software patents worldwide.
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</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<h3><a
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href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/Transcripts#patents">Software patents presentations</a></h3>
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<p>
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List of transcripts, such as Richard Stallman's 2004 talk: <a
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href="http://www.ifso.ie/documents/rms-2004-05-24.html">The Dangers
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of Software Patents</a>
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</p>
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</li>
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</ul>
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</body>
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</html>
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