Quisiéramos invitarle a un debate sobre el proyecto de directiva de patentes de programación de la UE el miércoles, 12.3.2003 a las 15.00 - 16.30 en la sala S 2.3 del edificio Louise Weiss en Strasbourg.

• Time and Place
• Invitation
• Subjects of discussion
• Relevant Reading

Wednesday 2003/03/12 15.00-16.30 Strasburg LoW S2.3

Invitation

Dear Parlamentarians

El Parlamento Europeo es el primer legislador del mundo a quien corresponde decidir sobre normas de propiedad sobre ideas que se han utilizado en la Oficina Europea de Patentes antes de aprobarse. Escoger entre reforzar la legislación actual o reformar la ley para permitir la práctica actual es uan deicisón revolucionaria. Bien una revolución en el status quo actual o bien una revolución en el status quo de la práctica. Quisiéramos invitarle a un debate sobre el proyecto de directiva de patentes de programación de la UE.

Quisiéramos invitarle a un debate sobre el proyecto de directiva de patentes de programación de la UE el miércoles, 12.3.2003 a las 15.00 - 16.30 en la sala S 2.3 del edificio Louise Weiss en Strasbourg.

El propósito de la reunión es intercambiar ideas antes de la discusión en JURI el 17 de marzo, incluido el análisis del

Informe de Mccarthy

http://swpat.ffii.org/penmi/2003/europarl/index.en.html

Esperamos verle pronto y le agradecemos que se percate de la importancia de los derechos básicos a la libertad y la productividad de la ciudadanía y empresas de software europeas.

Atentamente

Subjects of discussion

• Typology of computer-related patents: Examples, Classification Criteria, Statistics, Trends
• Which of patents should be granted and which not? Which selection criteria can work?
• What can be clarified at the level of written law?
• What is there to "harmonise" in European Substantive Patent Law?
• Is a EU directive the right legal instrument?
• Relation of the software patent directive project to European constitutional law
• Criticism of various variants and amendments of the directive proposal
• The future of patents, copyright and related systems in Europe

Relevant Reading

Bitkom Survey: 60% against extension of patentability How EICTA is basing representation claims on misinterpreted answers to misleading questions McCarthy 2003-02-19: Amended Software Patent Directive Proposal Arlene McCarthy, British Labor MEP appointed by the European Parliament's Committee for Legal Affairs and the Internal Market (JURI) to report on the European Commission's Software Patentability Directive Proposal (CEC/BSA Proposal), suggests that the European Parliament should enact the CEC/BSA version with additional safeguards to align Europe on the US practise and make sure that there can be no limit on patentability. McCarthy reiterates the CEC/BSA software patent advocacy and misrepresents the wide-spread criticism without citing any of it. Even economic and legal expertises ordered by the European Parliament and other critical opinions of EU institutions are not taken into account. McCarthy's economic argumentation consists of tautologies and unfounded assertions, such as that companies like Ericsson and Alcatel need software patents to finance their R&D, that SMEs need european software patents in order to compete in the USA, that patents are needed to keep developping countries at bay. McCarthy uses the term "computer-implemented inventions" as a synonym for "software innovations". These "by their very nature belong to a field of technology". McCarthy insists that "irreconcilable conflicts" with the EPO must be avoided. McCarthy says she wants to "set clear limits as to what is patentable" -- and that she wants to avoid the "sterile discussions" about "technical effects" and "exclusions from patentability". Yet her proposal stays confined to such discussions. McCarthy demands that all useful ideas, including algorithms and business methods, must be patentable as "computer-implemented inventions". McCarthy proposes to recognise the EPO as Europe's supreme patent legislator and to make decisions of a few influential people at the EPO irreversible and binding for all of Europe. EU Software Patent Directive Amendment Proposals The European Commission proposed on 2002-02-20 to consider computer programs as patentable inventions and make it very difficult not to grant a patent on an algorithm or a business method that is claimed with the typical features of a computer program (e.g. computer, i/o, memory etc). We have worked out a counter-proposal that upholds the freedom of computer-aided reasoning, calculating, organising and formulating and the copyright property-based property rights of software authors while supporting the patentability of technical inventions (problem solutions involving forces of nature) according to the differentiations that have been laid down in the European Patent Convention (EPC), the TRIPs treaty and the classical patent law literature. This counter-proposal is receiving support from numerous prominent players in the fields of software, economics, politics and law.