[Fsfe-ie] Patents letter, V4
Ian Clarke
ian at locut.us
Tue Jan 25 17:41:32 CET 2005
Some minor corrections/suggestions:
On 25 Jan 2005, at 15:34, Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
> ---8<--------------------------------------------------
> Dear Council Representative,
>
> On behalf of Irish Free Software Organisation (IFSO), I am writing to
> you
^--the
> regarding Directive 2002/0047 COD. IFSO requests that this directive,
> "on
> the patentability of computer related inventions", be changed from an
> A-list
> item to a B-list item on the grounds that it permits the patenting of
> software ideas - an outcome contrary to the stated aim of most of the
> previous Council members.
>
> The original version from the European Commission contained unclear
> wording
> which would have allowed the patentability of software ideas. This
> issue was
> fixed by the European Parliament in September 2003. In May 2004,
> similar
> unclear wording was reintroduced by the European Council.
>
> IFSO believes that the members of the European Council were deceived
> by the
> wording of the replacement amendments presented to them, and IFSO
> would like
> to see this directive fixed while it's still possible.
>
>
> First I would like to summarise the two problems caused by software
> idea
> patents, and some of the follow on harm. I'll be brief as you may
> already
> be familiar with this issue. If you'd like us to expand or back up
> any of
> these, our contact details are at the end of this letter.
>
>
> Problem 1:
>
> Every individual and business can currently write software.
>
> The current cost of writing software is zero. If this directive
> legalises
Strange sentence structure, how about: Currently, there is no inherent
cost in writing software.
> the patenting of software, then writing software would carry the risk
> of
> patent infringement litigation. This cost is far too high for most
> individuals and businesses. The avoid litigation, a software writer
> could
*To* avoid ligitation
change "could" to "must"
> perform a patent search to confirm that none of the ideas they
> implement
> have been patented. The lawyer's fees for such searches are high, and
> the
> software writer would still not be certain that the lawyer missed
> something,
lawyer *didn't* miss something
> or that a judge would interpret a patent the same way the patent
> searcher
> did. Even the cost of challenging a claim of patent infringement is
> too
> high for most individuals and businesses. Thus, most people would
> lose the
didn't someone estimate this to be around $2,000,000 ?
Have to go out now, may have more comments on the remainder,
Ian.
--
Founder, The Freenet Project http://freenetproject.org/
CEO, Cematics Ltd http://cematics.com/
Personal Blog http://locut.us/~ian/blog/
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