144 lines
5.3 KiB
HTML
144 lines
5.3 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
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<html>
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>
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European Cities will suffer from software patents - 7 March 2005
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</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<center>
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<h1>Software Patents in Europe</h1>
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[ <a href="/activities/swpat/swpat.html">Introduction</a>
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| <a href="/activities/swpat/background.html">Background</a>
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| <a href="/activities/swpat/status.html">Status</a>
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| <a href="/activities/swpat/documents.html">Further Reading</a> ]
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</center>
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<br />
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<center>
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Open Letter
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[<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20040510.html">2004-05-10</a>]
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[<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20040531.html">2004-05-31</a>]
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[<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20040706.html">2004-07-06</a>]
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[<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20040802.html">2004-08-02</a>]
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[<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20040906.html">2004-09-06</a>]
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[<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20041004.html">2004-10-04</a>]
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[<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20041101.html">2004-11-01</a>]
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[<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20041206.html">2004-12-06</a>]
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[<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20050103.html">2005-01-03</a>]
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[<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20050207.html">2005-02-07</a>]
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[2005-03-07]
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[<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20050405.html">2005-04-05</a>]
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[<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20050502.html">2005-05-02</a>]
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[<a href="/activities/swpat/letter-20050606.html">2005-06-06</a>]
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</center>
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<h2>
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European Cities will suffer from software patents
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</h2>
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<h3>7 March 2005</h3>
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<p>
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EUROCITIES is the network of some 100 major cities within the
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EU: Norway, Switzerland, Central and Eastern Europe and the New
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Independent States (NIS). Eurocities was established in 1986,
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there are over 100 million citizens in its member cities.
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Catherine Parmentier is Chief Executive Officer of EUROCITIES.
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</p>
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<p>Dear Mrs Parmentier,</p>
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<p>
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The European Council and European Commission are trying to introduce a
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legal basis for software patents in Europe. This would expose European
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cities to uncalculable and unforseeable risks due to software patent
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litigation expenses. That is why we hope you will join us in fighting
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these employment and innovation killers.
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</p>
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<p>
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In addition, city councils throughout Europe do have to overcome the
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same difficulties: The number of those who depend on social welfare is
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increasing, budgets ar decreasing and citizens expect public services to
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provide a better quality than ever before. These apparently
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contradictory goals shall be reached by a conversion of the formerly
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labour-intensive administration tasks into automated electronic
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procedures and structures -- not only within a single administration,
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but also between different public services, administration to
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citizens and administration to business.
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</p>
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<p>
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The well known buzzword for this is "eGovernment".
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</p>
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<p>
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Standardised structures and procedures which are defined and
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implemented as the default software to be used across local structures
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and administration provide and ideal territory for software patent
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litigation claims: Potential claims reach from the grounds of basic
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functionality, such as networks, databases and file systems, to the
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abstract methods and protocols providing the specific functionality.</p>
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<p>
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As software patents do not require proof of concept or implementation,
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the patentee can easily afford to file abstract methods and decide to
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give or deny licenses arbitrarily.
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</p>
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<p>
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This will become a significant cost factor for three main reasons:
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Both software developers and users can be asked for almost any amount
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of money the software patent holder chooses. Many developers and
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companies will not be able to pay such demands and thus go out of
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business, turning tax-payers into people in need of social welfare.
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Finally, the price of the remaining software companies products will
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increase because of the need to refinance their software patent expenses
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and also because of reduced competition in the market.
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</p>
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<p>
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The US Patent and Trademark Office has registered 1185 software
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patents [1] dealing with "public service" and 19 explicitly dealing
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with "city council" [2]. It is not necessary to mention these keywords
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when applying for a software patent, so these are only the tip of the
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iceberg and the list is expected to grow rapidly should software patents
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become reality.
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</p>
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<p>
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With the introduction of software patents, European cities would have
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to be aware of dramatically increasing costs and an increasingly
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difficult legal situation with high risks for the administration.
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</p>
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<p>
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We would like to recommend that you contact Mr Christian Ude, the mayor
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of Munich, who has also become aware of the damaging effects that
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software patents have for public services. Should you have further
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questions or need additional assistance, please do not hesitate to
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contact us.
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</p>
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<p>With kind regards,</p>
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<p>
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<a href="/about/people/greve/">Georg Greve</a><br />
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President<br />
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Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)<br />
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<a href="/">fsfe.org</a>
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</p>
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</body>
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</html>
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