124 lines
5.8 KiB
HTML
124 lines
5.8 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
|
|
|
|
<html>
|
|
<head>
|
|
<title>
|
|
A compulsory insurance against software patents is like firefighting with
|
|
petrol - November 1st, 2004
|
|
</title>
|
|
</head>
|
|
<body>
|
|
<center><h1>Software Patents in Europe</h1>
|
|
[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/swpat.html">Introduction</a> | <a
|
|
href="/campaigns/swpat/background.html">Background</a> | <a
|
|
href="/campaigns/swpat/status.html">Status</a> | <a
|
|
href="/campaigns/swpat/documents.html">Further Reading</a> ]
|
|
</center>
|
|
|
|
<br />
|
|
|
|
<center> Open Letter
|
|
[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20040510.html">2004-05-10</a>]
|
|
[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20040531.html">2004-05-31</a>]
|
|
[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20040706.html">2004-07-06</a>]
|
|
[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20040802.html">2004-08-02</a>]
|
|
[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20040906.html">2004-09-06</a>]
|
|
[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20041004.html">2004-10-04</a>]
|
|
[2004-11-01]
|
|
[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20041206.html">2004-12-06</a>]
|
|
[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20050103.html">2005-01-03</a>]
|
|
[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20050207.html">2005-02-07</a>]
|
|
[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20050307.html">2005-03-07</a>]
|
|
[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20050405.html">2005-04-05</a>]
|
|
[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20050502.html">2005-05-02</a>]
|
|
[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20050606.html">2005-06-06</a>]
|
|
</center>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
Firefighting with petrol
|
|
</h2>
|
|
|
|
<h3>November 1st, 2004</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p>Dear Mr Barroso,</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The preceding European Commission (EC) was campaigning actively for the
|
|
introduction of software patents in Europe. This campaign was against the
|
|
information and evidence showing that this would lead to considerable
|
|
risk to the European economies: On top of the
|
|
<a href="/campaigns/swpat/letter-20040531.html">studies already known</a>,
|
|
recent publications by
|
|
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/15/pwc_swpat_are_a_threat/">Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC)</a>
|
|
and
|
|
<a href="http://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_EN-PROD/PROD0000000000175949.pdf">Deutsche Bank Research</a>
|
|
further underlines the damaging consequences of software patents on
|
|
Europe. As The Register quotes PwC: "The mild regime [...] in the past
|
|
has led to a very innovative and competitive software industry with low
|
|
entry barriers. A software patent, which serves to protect inventions of
|
|
a non-technical nature, could kill the high innovation rate."
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The reality that software patents are becoming an innovation restriction
|
|
may be one reason why all the parties in the German parliament objected
|
|
to their introduction. This is the first time (which we are aware of)
|
|
that all parties have objected in this way. Furthermore acknowledging the
|
|
damaging effect of software patents, the latest idea of the parting
|
|
European Commission is
|
|
<a href="http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/indprop/docs/patent/studies/litigation_en.pdf">compulsory insurance</a>
|
|
to limit the damage.
|
|
This insurance would apply to both defendants and patentees. When looking
|
|
for examples of software patent litigation that this insurance should
|
|
protect against, one does not have to look far: Eolas Technologies sued
|
|
Microsoft because of the infringement of a software patent in 1999.
|
|
Meanwhile - five years and remarkable legal expenses later - the US
|
|
Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has declared the patent invalid. There
|
|
is no expert certain the patent would be upheld. Nevertheless Eolas
|
|
declared they would keep fighting, there is no way to predict when this
|
|
litigation will end. Eolas is continuing along this road without
|
|
insurance against losing the lawsuit.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
In this sense, the planned compulsory insurance is like firefighting with
|
|
petrol: We already have 30,000 software patents in Europe. Many
|
|
compulsory insured patentees will consider the insurance as an investment
|
|
they need a return on. Returns from software patents are reaped in
|
|
lawsuits filed. The result: Rapidly exploding insurance premiums,
|
|
insurance companies limiting their risk to what they can calculate, and
|
|
in the end patentees and defendants will find themselves in a situation
|
|
similar to one without compulsory insurance, but with one important
|
|
difference: They will have spent an insane amount of money on a useless
|
|
insurance and bureaucracy for its administration will have skyrocketed.
|
|
With these developments, working on reducing bureaucracy in the European
|
|
Commission will become a futile endeavour, but more importantly,
|
|
innovations in the information society will be eliminated and Europe will
|
|
not become a competitive knowlege based economy by 2010.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
We therefore ask you to please spare the European economy both the
|
|
introduction of software patents (one of the most efficient road blocks
|
|
to innovation and economic growth in the information society) and the
|
|
madness of insurance against this needlessly created risk.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>With kind regards,</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<a href="/about/greve/">Georg Greve</a><br />
|
|
President<br />
|
|
Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)<br />
|
|
<a href="/">fsfe.org</a>
|
|
</p>
|
|
</body>
|
|
|
|
<timestamp>$Date$ $Author$</timestamp>
|
|
</html>
|
|
<!--
|
|
Local Variables: ***
|
|
mode: xml ***
|
|
End: ***
|
|
-->
|