On Tue, Jan 08, 2008 at 12:35:17PM +0000, Alex Hudson wrote:
On Tue, 2008-01-08 at 12:17 +0000, Rui Miguel Silva Seabra wrote:
On Tue, Jan 08, 2008 at 12:07:41PM +0000, Alex Hudson wrote:
On Tue, 2008-01-08 at 12:02 +0000, Rui Miguel Silva Seabra wrote:
Now it makes sense. Still: => recognising validity of Microsoft's software patents. => foot, meet bullet
You would prefer they pretend those patents weren't issued?
No, they should demand EPO to ungrant them.
Honestly, I think that would be completely pointless politicking for absolutely no gain. There are some battles not worth fighting, and attempting to bust a few patents down in a negotiation process for much more important information is one of them.
Not bust a few patents, all *software* patents.
First step is not recognising them at all.
Let's imagine that by some chance the EC agreed that the patents should be invalidated, and bypassed the usual legal process for whatever bizarre and dangerous reason. What good does that do us? It doesn't invalidate all the other software patents that have been granted in Europe. The EC isn't going to set any kind of precedent in patents with some anti-trust agreement.
Haven't you noticed? They already did! If you have patents, don't worry about anti-trust!
Software patents aren't going to be defeated one-by-one by knocking them out some way; the legal situation needs clarity so that the patents are recognisably unenforcable. Right now that arguably isn't the case.
I don't defend that. I defend that they must not be recognised at all.
In Europe there are no Software Patents. There are some patents that have been granted against the law.
Rui