-- FFII News Release -- 9 April 2004 -- +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ -- For immediate release -- Please redistribute widely --
ACCU conference panel on software patents, Oxford, Thursday April 15. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition to the events organised in Brussels by the FFII next week on Wednesday and Thursday, http://plone.ffii.org/events/2004/bxl04/ there will be a lively discussion of Software Patents in Oxford in the UK, on Thursday afternoon at the ACCU conference at the Randolph Hotel: http://www.accu.org/conference/opensource.html
The intention is to give over as much of the session as possible to real software developers, speaking from the floor, to explain what they think of software patents, whether or not they are in favour, and how they think the industry would be affected. Responding to their comments will be a well-informed panel made up of Dr Puay Tang (Research Fellow, Sussex University), Steve Probert (Deputy Director, UK Patent Office), James Heald (UK Co-ordinator, FFII), and Dr Sarah Weir (Senior Business Manager, Cancer Research Technology). [Further details below].
Registration for the conference costs £160 per day, or £595 for the full conference, with reductions available for students and academics.
Journalists can be admitted free, but must be accredited first. For details and contact address, see http://www.accu.org/conference/press.html
The ACCU spring conference (Association of C and C++ Users) is a professional conference now in its tenth year, typically attracting several hundred leading software developers, and extensive media. http://www.accu.org/conference/index.html
The session on Software Patents (Thurs 4pm to 5.30) is timetabled as the conclusion of a special two-day theme, running alongside the more detailed technical strands, to take stock of Open Source in the software industry, five years on from the initial hype -- from a business perspective, where does it now stand, and where it is going ?
This strand is intended to be of more general wider interest to journalists and decision-makers, as well as the high-calibre developers at the conference. It will kick off on Wednesday with a special keynote address from renowned Open Source thinker and speaker Eric Raymond, and panels include the latest developments for Open Source in e-Government, Open Source and Open Standards in Finance, a multitude of case studies, and "Open Source Business Models That Work" -- all presented by speakers right at the cutting edge of current developments.
For full details see, http://www.accu.org/conference/opensource.html
It should be an interesting couple of days!
----------------------------------------------------------------- Details:
ACCU Conference Panel on Software Patentability (Randolph Hotel, Oxford, Thursday 15 April, 4pm to 5.30)
Panel chair: Andy Robinson (Reportlab), overall co-ordinator for the Open Source strand of the conference.
Panellists (proposed speaking order):
* Dr Puay Tang (Sussex University), to introduce the economics of patentability in general, and some of the particular pros and cons of software patentability.
Dr Tang is a Research Fellow at the Science and Technology Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex. Her research focusses on intellectual property rights and management; and the application and development of new information and communication technologies. She has done extensive research on the implications of software patentability, and wrote a report on the subject for the European Commission in 2001.
* Steve Probert (Patent Office), to explain the Patent Office view, and who can speak authoritatively about what is and is not patentable both now and under the latest versions of the proposed EU Directive.
Steve Probert is a Deputy Director of the UK Patent Office. He has handed down several decisions on "computer-implemented invention" patents, and now has the immediate responsibility in the Patent Office for technical aspects of the negotiations on the EU software patents Directive.
* James Heald (FFII), to explain some of the fears which have motivated the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure's campaign against the directive.
James Heald is the FFII's UK co-ordinator.
* Dr Sarah Weir (Cancer Research Technology), to discuss and contrast the experience of patents in the pharmaceutical/biotech sector, where patents are long established, and widely considered to be essential.
Dr Weir oversees the protection and commercialisation of research from the research portfolios funded by Cancer Research UK and other funding bodies both in the UK and abroad.
----------------------------------------------------------------- The overall session length is 90 minutes, and there has been a lot of interest from attendees wanting to make floor speeches, from a variety of different perspectives. The session will therefore take the form of opening remarks from the panel of no more than about five minutes each, followed by as many comments from the floor as possible, with further responses from the panel as appropriate.