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Software Patents in Finnland

Between 1998 and 2003 the Finnish Patent Office (FiPO/FiPRH) did not follow the European Patent Office's (EPO) decisions to grant literal claims to information objects such as "computer program product, characterised by ...". In 2003 the FiPO suddenly rushed to grant such claims, although both the European Commission and the European Parliament had proposed not to allow them and the existing laws clearly forbid them. The FiPO based its decision merely on the fact that the FiPO itself had participated in pushing the "European Council's Patent Working Party", a group of national patent administrators, to propose that such claims be accepted. Thanks to Nokia, Finnland is one of the tallest software patenting dwarfs at the EPO. Nokia owns about 70-80% of the finnish software patents at the EPO and is said to wield overwhelming influence on Finnland's politics. Nokia's patent department has been intensively lobbying for software patentability in Helsinki, Brussels and Strasburg.

Finnish software patents at the EPO
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Finnish software patents at the EPO

According to the FFII statistics, currently finnish companies hold 840 patent applications at the EPO, and of these 572 are held by Nokia.

Annotated Links

Patentti-ja Rekisterihallitus: Finnish Patent Office
Finnish Patent Office 2003: decision to legalise program claims: Pekka Launis and Eero Bomanson fron the Finnish Patent Office announce that they will now, contrary to the written law and to the European Commission's Directive Proposal and the European Parliament's amendment proposals, allow literal claims to computer programs and other information objects. They say that they must do so now, because the EPO has been doing so since 1998 and because the European Council has endorsed a proposal by the Patent Working Group, in which the Finnish Patent Office speaks for the Finnish government, to change the proposed directive in such a way that program claims are legalised. This text is available in Finnish and Swedish.
Finnish Patent Office legalises program claims: rough translation of an announcement of the Finnish Patent Office by Erik Josefsson and discussion thread.
Nokia and Software Patents: Tim Frain, head of Nokia's patent department, is a "permanent resident" of the European parliament and has used every opportunity to ask politicians in Brussels and in Finland to support the European Commission's software patentability directive. He is present at conferences everywhere. He argues that small companies badly need software patents because otherwise their ideas might be stolen by large companies. Interestingly, most of the software which Nokia uses in its mobile phones is written by Opera, a relatively small (120 employees) company which has actively supported the Eurolinux campaign against software patents. Frain's department is one of the most active producers of software patents in Europe. Here you find an overview of their applications at the European Patent Office.