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#title: Alcatel and Software Patents

#descr: In 2002, the french telecom giant published a paper which complains in
harsh words about negative effects of patents such as legal insecurity
and diversion of funds from R&D to litigation.  On the other hand,
Alcatel, as a global telecom player, owns a large software patent
portfolio, and Alcatel's patent department is actively lobbying
politicians to assure that Alcatel's patenting efforts will pay off in
Europe in the same way as in the US.  Jonas Heitto, Alcatel patent
lawyer trained at MPI in Munich, seems to be present at every related
meeting in Brussels and some national capitals.  He is not the only
one.  Alcatel participated in the European Commission's
%(q:Consultation Exercise) of 2000 in its own name as well as in the
name of IT associations such as ANIEL from Spain.  Alcatel has
recently been pursuing a strategy %(q:fabless company), i.e. outsource
as much production as possible to partners in countries where
production is cheap (e.g. China) while keeping a lean headquarter
(financial and legal services and some R&D) in France and/or the
Bahamas/Bermudas, depending on where taxes are lower.  Patents are
said to be helpful in implementing this strategy and in transferring
money to tax havens.  In the rationale for her software patentability
directive proposal, MEP Arlene McCarthy cites Alcatel as an example
and stresses that patents are needed to protect European businesses at
a time where production costs are high here.  Here we try to take a
closer look at Alcatel's patent-related strategies and in particular
their software patent applications at the European Patent Office. 
Most of Alcatel's developments are in the area of software, and
recently Alcatel is more than ever focussing on %(q:next generation
Internet) communication standards and applications.

#epat: Alcatel Software Patents at the European Patent Office (EPO)

#eui: Alcatel 2002: Frequent Patent Litigation Diverting Efforts of
Technical Personnel

#erW: A report by Alcatel which mentions patent troubles encountered by
Alcatel: %(bc|Like other companies operating in the telecommunications
industry, we experience frequent litigation regarding patent and other
intellectual property rights. Third parties have asserted, and in the
future may assert, claims against us alleging that we infringe their
intellectual property rights. Defending these claims may be expensive
and divert the efforts of our management and technical personnel. If
we do not succeed in defending these claims, we could be required to
expend significant resources to develop non-infringing technology or
to obtain licenses to the technology that is the subject of the
litigation. In addition, third parties may attempt to appropriate the
confidential information and proprietary technologies and processes
used in our business, which we may be unable to prevent.|Our business
and results of operations will be harmed if we are unable to acquire
licenses for third party technologies on reasonable terms.|We remain
dependent in part on third party license agreements which enable us to
use third party technology to develop or produce our products.
However, we cannot be certain that any such licenses will be available
to us on commercially reasonably terms, if at all.)

#lWd: Alcatel 1999: Policy on Patents and Licenses

#ehi: A regular report to shareholders with a section on patent policy and
disputes

#lWd2: Alcatel 1999: Policy on Patents and Licenses

#ehi2: A regular report to shareholders with a section on patent policy and
disputes

#eWi: Alcatel 2000: 870 patent applications

#loW: Report to shareholders: %(q:In 2000, Alcatel devoted Euro 2.8 billion
to its R&D budget and filed for 870 patents.)

#eam: Alcatel 1998: Alliance with Thomson-CSF

#WfW: Report to shareholders.  Says inter alia %(q:Alcatel and Thomson-CSF
created a joint research laboratory devoted to software architecture.)
 ... %(q:Alcatel considers patent protection to be important to its
businesses, particularly)

#1tW: Alcatel 1997: Report for British MEP: 750 patent applications

#emW: Alcatel has an exceptional patent portfolio. In 1997, the company
applied for over 750 patents for its innovative processes, ...

#WCC: Alcatel 2000: Reply to CEC Software Patent Consultation

#rWr: A patent expert from the legal department of Alcatel applauds the
European Commission's proposal for unlimited patentability, explains
that all patents stimulate innovation and the fact that the US has the
most advanced software industry sufficiently proves that software
patents, just like patents in any other field of technology, stimulate
software innovation.  Moreover, the most important reason to support
patents is that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) badly need them.

#ins: Alcatel Builds Next Generation Networks

#bse: Alcatel's website expresses Alcatel's desire to control upcoming
Internet standards.

#ctm: The place of higher formation where Heitto and many others, forming a
large influential network of colleagues spread over all kinds of
institutions, were inculcated with the patent movement's philosophy
and corporatist spirit.

#lhc: MEP McCarthy mentions Alcatel's success story and appears very
preoccupied with the function of patents in an environment where
production costs are lower elsewhere.

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