Nouvelles sur les Brevets Logiciels en 2004

The German State TV Channel ZDF.de is examining a complaint by FFII about news film of July 6th in which journalist Manfred Ahlers had reported about a "summit" of the german patent establishment with the Siemens boss H.v. Pierer and chancellor Schröder as keynote speakers. Ahlers wrongly reported that Schröder had called for software patentability and that "theft of ideas caused billions of euro of damage to the software industry every year", using a interview with a BSA official about the unrelated subject of copyright violations in order to confuse the issues and fabricate a consensus in favor of software patents, in the same way as the BSA-written "explanatory memorandum" of the European Commission's directive proposal attempted this in 2002. The Ahlers report falsely presents FFII as a lobby group of copyright violators campaigning for a right to "freely reuse programs written by others". The suggestive techniques and circumstances make it difficult to assume that this was done by mistake. FFII submitted a formal complaint to ZDF's multi-partisan supervisory body asking for compensatory measures. The director of the body, MP Rupert Polenz, has affirmed receipt of the complaint and forwarded it to the program director (Intendant). A further decision will be taken after receipt of the program director's opinion.

La présidence irlandaise a obtenu une approbation politique pour une nouvelle ébauche de la très controversée directive sur les brevets logiciels lors d'une réunion du Conseil des ministres, ce mardi 18 mai 2004. Cette ébauche et le communiqué de presse l'accompagnant sont remplis de déclarations de bonnes intentions prétendant empêcher les brevets sur les logiciels et les méthodes d'affaire en tant que telles, tandis que les dispositions inscrites dans le texte s'assurent que ceux-ci doivent sans l'ombre d'un doute être traités comme des inventions brevetables en Europe. Le texte doit sa majorité à une manoeuvre de la délégation allemande, qui avait rassemblé l'opposition sous son drapeau, pour à la dernière minute se contenter d'un amendement boggué et entraîner avec elle les polonais et les lettoniens. Les représentants des Pays-bas, de la Hongrie, du Danemark et de la France ont apparemment agi en contradiction avec les promesses données par leurs parlements ou leurs gouvernements.

Le Conseil des ministres de l'UE est en train de prouver que la notion de démocratie est étrangère à l'Union européenne. Ce mercredi, la présidence irlandaise est parvenue à obtenir une majorité qualifiée pour une contre-proposition à la directive sur les brevets logiciel, avec seulement quelques pays - dont la Belgique et l'Allemagne - faisant preuve de résistance. Le nouveau texte propose de jeter tous les amendements du Parlement européen qui imposaient des limites à la brevetabilité. Au lieu de cela, il rétablit dans sa totalité le langage sibyllin de la proposition originale de la Commission, en y ajoutant la brevetabilité directe de programmes d'ordinateur, de structures de données et de description de processus comme cerise sur le gâteau. La proposition est maintenant programmée pour être entérinée sans discussion lors d'une réunion des ministres les 17 et 18 mai, à moins qu'un des États membres ne change sa voix. Dans une unamimité re marquable à l'approche des élections, les membres du Parlement européen de tous les groupes de l'échiquier politique condamnent cette irrévérence flagrante pour la démocratie en Europe.

Après des mois de discussion dans le secret des coulisses, la Présidence irlandaise de l'Union européenne renvoie la proposition de directive de l'UE sur les brevets logiciels à la case "politique". L'Irlande veut que les ministres des États membres se mettent d'accord pour que toute objection soit levée en mai. La proposition de la Présidence rejette tous les amendements du Parlement européen qui clarifient le texte et pousse au contraire à une brevetabilité directe des programmes d'ordinateur, des structures de données et des descriptions de procédés. La déléguation luxembourgeoise a fait en vain une dernière tentative pour garantir l'interopérabilité des standards brevetés, tentative rejetée. En renfort de la position du Conseil, le département brevets de Nokia récolte les signatures de cadres des plus importantes entreprises dans un "Appel à l'action" soutenant le texte de la Présidence. Dans le camp opposé, les défenseurs de la posi tion du Parlement européen ont organisé des conférences pour expliquer les dangers des brevets logciciels et se mobilisent pour une "grève en ligne" et un rassemblement à Bruxelles le 14 avril avec comme slogan : "Non aux brevets logiciels -- Le pouvoir au Parlement". Ils espèrent récidiver avec le même impact que des actions similaires avaient eu en septembre 2003, contribuant à convaincre le Parlement européen de voter clairement contre la brevetabilité des logiciels.

In the Council of Ministers of the European Union, national patent administration officials have, after several months of secret negotiations about the proposed EU software patent directive, have reached the end of several months of secret negotiations about textual questions. The resulting "compromise document" rejects all clarifying amendments made by the European Parliament and instead pushes for direct patentability of computer programs, data structures and process descriptions. A last minute attempt by the Luxemburg delegation to allow interoperation with patented standards was rejected. Many other delegations have expressed reservations about the document, which are inserted as anonymised footnotes. Yet the Irish Council presidency wants the ministers to jointly adopt this text at the "Competitivity Council" meeting on May 17-18.

Les procédures anti-concurrentielles de la Commission européenne contre Microsoft ont débouché sur un verdict boostant fortement la position de monopole de Microsoft sur le marché des OS et aident Microsoft à étendre cette position sur d'autres marchés. Alors que la Commission peut se targuer d'avoir gagné une somme substantielle en imposant une amende ponctuelle, équivalente à 1% des réserves de caisse de Microsoft, on peut voir entre les lignes de ce verdict un feu vert donné à Microsoft pour tuer ses principaux concurrents sur le marché des systèmes d'exploitation. Ce sous-entendu a été en même temps renforcé par les négociations en coulisses du Groupe sur la politique de brevets du Conseil de l'UE, dont des copies ont été transmises à la FFII. Immédiatement après l'annonce, le cours boursier de MSFT s'est élevé de 3%.

publié 2-3 semaines plus tard sur site consilium.

In its anti-trust procedings against Microsoft, the European Commission has found that Microsoft is trying to extend its desktop monopoly into the market for workgroup servers (file, print, mail and web servers) by keeping secret the communications protocols that enable its desktop and server products to talk to each other. "Without such information, alternative server software would be denied a level playing field, as it would be artificially deprived of the opportunity to compete with Microsoft's products on technical merits alone," the Commission warned in 2001. Yet, the Commission has stopped short of demanding that Microsoft make its protocols freely available. According to an article in the Economist, Microsoft will only be required to license its server-communications protocols to rivals on a "reasonable and non-discriminatory" basis, which means e.g. that free/opensource software projects such as Samba can be excluded, and a look at Microsoft's recently published aggressive licensing program shows that indeed they are. Another arm of the Commission is fighting for the right of Microsoft and other companies to forbid interoperation with any patented standard which they chose to impose by their market power. Bolkestein's Industrial Property Unit has been urging the Council members to remove Art 6a of the European Parliament's Software Patent Directive Proposal. Art 6a demands that the use of a patented technique for mere interoperation purposes should always be royalty-free.

The Paris based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, in which the world's wealthier countries are members, has issued a report on problems with the patent system. OECD calls for "closer scrutiny by science, technology and innovation policy makers" of patent regimes, warning that governments "must remain vigilant in ensuring that patenting does not unnecessarily hinder access to knowledge, reduce incentives to disseminate knowledge, or impede follow-on innovation". The report specially names software, business method and gene patents as fields where the efficiency of the patent system seems particularly questionable.

Vor dem Bezirksgericht in Pittsburgh soll eine Patentverletzungklage in dreistelliger Millionenhöhe gegen CD Now, eine E-Commerce Tochter von Bertelsmann verhandelt werden. Bereits 1998 hat Sightsound Technologies die Klage gegen die Bertelsmann-Tochter wegen Patentverletzung eingereicht. 1993 erhielt Sightsound - Gründer Art Hair ein erstes US-Patent auf das Verfahren für den Austausch von Musik als komprimierter Internet-Datenstrom gegen Zahlung. �hnliche Patente sind auch vom Europäischen Patentamt gegen den Buchstaben und Geist des Gesetzes erteilt worden. Während das Europäische Parlament im September 2003 solche Patente erneut für illegal erklärt hat, drängt die Patentarbeitsgruppe des Rates der Europäischen Union (ein Gremium der Betreiber des Europäischen Patetamtes) auf ihre Legalisierung.

Microsoft has just been awarded two patents (US 6,510,177 and US 6,683,980) for a method of packing a high-definition television signal onto a hard drive, internetnews.com reports. The article goes on to quote anonymous experts who praise the methods patented here are basic and advantageous building blocks of any future digital media standards and speculate that Microsoft's "Windows Media 9 technology" will become irresistible if it is the only one that can use these methods. Microsoft has meanwhile published licensing conditions for its protocols which make it clear that they cannot be used by opensource software.

Le Conseil des ministres de l'Union européenne, actuellement présidé par l'Irlande, fait circuler un document de travail avec des contre-propositions aux amendements du Parlement européen. Contrastant avec la version du Parlement européen, la version du Conseil autorise une brevetabilité illimitée et l'applicabilité des brevets. D'après la version du Conseil, le "One Click shopping" d'Amazon est sans l'ombre d'un doute une invention brevetable, la publication de programmes sur un serveur constitue déjà une infraction et l'utilisation de formats de fichier brevetés dans un but d'interopérabilité n'est pas autorisée. Puisque la procédure de décision du Conseil est secrète, on ne sait pas qui appuie cette proposition au nom de quel gouvernement mais il est bien connu que le groupe de travail responsable est composé de fonctionnaires des bureaux des brevets nationaux et de gens proches de ce groupe qui ont également un siège côte à côte au cons eil administratif de l'Office européen des brevets.

CEOs of 5 of the largest patenting companies in Sweden falsely accuse the European Parliament of having voted to make software-controlled industrial production processes (e.g. robots of ABB) unpatentable. Based on this false accusation, they demand support for the position of the European Commission and European Council, which is to legalise 30000 patents on pure software and business methods which have been granted by the European Patent Office in recent years against the letter and spirit of the existing law. The CEOs moreover make it clear that "harmonisation and clarification": they want either a full codification of unlimited patentability according to the EPO doctrines or no directive at all. Similar letters have been signed by prominent industry executives and sent to heads of government. This is the first time that they are directly going public with such a letter. The letter comes after a statement by Sweden's Justice Minister Thomas Bodström in support

FFII has filed an opposition at the European Patent Office (EPO) against the Gift-Ordering Patent of Amazon. The FFII is asking the Technical Board of Appeal to revoke the patent and to return a more straightforward understanding of the European Patent Convention, which alone could securely prevent the granting of masses of broad and trivial monopolies on rules of organisation and calculation. This demand of the FFII is backed by a petition which has been signed by numerous politicians, entrepreneurs and organisations.

Die Niedersächsische Landesregierung rebelliert gegen EU-Binnenmarktkommissar Frits Bolkesteins Bemühungen um eine Richtlinie zur Entflechtung regionaler Industriekonglomerate und Erleichterung von Übernahmen an der Börse. In einem Schreiben an Kommissionspräsident Prodi und diverse EU-Kommissare wirft die Landesregierung Bolkesteins Apparat ausdrücklich unredliche Argumentationstaktiken vor. Der FFII fühlt sich an Erfahrungen mit dem gleichen Apparat im Zusammenhang mit anderen Richtlinien erinnert.

The European Patent Office has granted the US patent rent extraction company Acacia Research a patent with a broad claim on almost any practical method of making videos available via web. Acacia has enforced the US cousin of this patent against numerous porn websites as well as universities and has also been sending warning letters to companies in Europe.

In a response to a parliamentary question in december 2003, Sweden's minister of justice Thomas Bodström endorsed the approach of the European Patent Office and the European Commission on software patents and criticised the European Parliament for amending the directive with the effect of narrowing the scope of patentability and making already-granted patents invalid. Bodström announced that his government will push for reversal of these amendments. His comments provoked applause from the patent movement (also called the "technostructure" in Sweden) and criticism from some software associations and companies.

The European Patent Office has granted the US patent rent extraction company Acacia Research a patent with a broad claim on almost any practical method of making videos available via web. Acacia has enforced the US cousin of this patent against numerous porn websites as well as universities and has also been sending warning letters to companies in Europe.

A spokeseman of the European Patent Office has provided official answers of the EPO to questions which MEP Piia-Noora Kauppi submitted to president Kober before his visit to the European Parliament on November 27. The answers are evasive and it is unclear whether Kober himself stands by them.

Parts of the Labour party and electorate of Arlene McCarthy's district are asking to have her replaced. McCarthy responds by pointing to her affiliation with the regional venture capital scene (= patent movement) and claiming merits in bringing special EU funds to her regions.

The Irish vice prime minister has unveiled a brochure which describes the agenda of the Competitiveness Council of the Irish EU Presidency. The brochure places high emphasis on the Community Patent and the IP Enforcement Directive and somewhat lower emphasis on the software patent directive, although it asserts that "effective instruments" for "protection" of "software inventions" form an "important underpinning" of the "knowledge based economy". The IE Presidency will try to bring about an agreement on the software patent directive at the May meeting of the Competitiveness Council.

The Irish vice prime minister has unveiled a brochure which describes the agenda of the Competitiveness Council of the Irish EU Presidency. The brochure places high emphasis on the Community Patent and the IP Enforcement Directive and somewhat lower emphasis on the software patent directive, although it asserts that "effective instruments" for "protection" of "software inventions" form an "important underpinning" of the "knowledge based economy". The IE Presidency will try to bring about an agreement on the software patent directive at the May meeting of the Competitiveness Council.

The british daily newspaper "The Independent" has an article by Charles Arthur titled "The patenting of software is a complete mess and discourages innovation". The article explains the reasoning that leads to software patents and points to the abstract nature of software innovation of one of the reasons why the results are unsatisfactory. The article mentions the European Patent Office's handling of the Amazon patent but not the september vote of the European Parliament.

Tumbleweed Communications is one of a handful of patent companies that are suing EBay/Paypal for infringment of Internet patents. EBay was condemned to pay large indemnity sums to CertCo and litigation with MercExchange and AT&T is still pending. Now Tumbleweed and EBay have reached an out-of-court settlement whose details are unknown.

Cisco Systems is introducing the Internet culture of open standards into the heavily patented telephone industry where strategic patenting is abundant. Sandbridge Technologies filed at least four virtual patents at WIPO in 2003, all covering methods of data exchange,

The Eolas patent ruling against Microsoft means Web pages that use embedded plugins are infringing on the US patent. Microsoft recommends a procedure to filter your HTML. They released information on a workaround that would allow web sites to continue to use ActiveX controls, Flash and other plugins without infringing on the patent. Web developers have to invest time and money in filter software. A DevX.com article explains how to do it with a homebrewn Java Server filter.