An opportunity for software SMEs and members of the European Parliament, especially the Legal Affairs Commission (JURI), to examine the proposed Software Patentability Directive before the scheduled vote in JURI

• Time & Place
• Tentative Schedule of Public Meeting
• Participants
• Annotated Links

Tentative Schedule of Public Meeting

The talks will focus on our evaluation of the JURI amendments.

Moderator: Erik Josefsson

14.00	Does the Industry need software patents? Is Software Copyright Too Weak? The Bessen & Hunt Study: Software Patents Substituting Software Innovation The experiences of European SMEs	Jamie Ayre and Francesco Gasperoni (act-europe.com) Laura Creighton (AB Strakt Inc) Jürgen Siepmann
15.00	JURI 2003/04-6 Amendments: Real and Fake Limits on Patentability	Reinier Bakels: What does the Proposal "Harmonise" and "Clarify" Hartmut Pilch: Benchmarking the JURI Amendments

Participants

From Sunday on (17.00), Erik can be reached in Strasbourg via +46 707 696567. On Tuesday and wednesday, Hartmut can be reached in Strasbourg via +49 172-8661737.

For general Strasbourg info, see also: http://offen.ffii.org/mv2003/wiki/StrasbourgLocalinfo (maps, restaurants, etc)

Sunday night 1 June:

CIARUS

• + 7, rue Finkmatt, 67000 Strasbourg, TEL: +33 3 88 15 27 90, http://www.ciarus.com/
• + one room (booked under the name of Erik Josefsson), used by: Erik Josefsson

Monday night 2 June:

CAP EUROPE APPART'HOTEL, 6, Rue de Bitche, 67000 STRASBOURG, TEL : +33 3 88 24 81 24

+ one room with three beds (booked under the name of Erik Josefsson), so far used by: Erik Josefsson, Jamie Ayre

Tuesday night 3 June:

IBIS Centre Ponts Couverts (town center), 7 Rue de Molsheim, 67000 Strasbourg, Tel: +33 3 90224870,

• + two double rooms (altogether 4 beds, booked under the name of Hartmut Pilch), used by: Hartmut Pilch, fg@numlog.fr, L Fernando, Toni Mueller
• + yet another two double rooms (altogether 4 beds, booked uder the name of Holger Blasum), so far used by: M Farcot, Erik Josefsson

* Hotel Formule 1, 67450 Lampertheim, Tel +33 891705400 (car needed!)

• + two double rooms (altogether 6 beds, booked under the name of Holger Blasum, reservation ID 487555), so far used by: Robert Christoph, Christine Wrase

Annotated Links

JURI 2003/04-6 Amendments: Real and Fake Limits on Patentability Members of the European Parliament's Commission on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market (JURI) submitted amendments to the European Commission's software patent directive proposal. While some MEPs are asking to bring the directive in line with Art 52 EPC so as to clearly restate that programs for computers are not patentable inventions, another group of MEPs is endorsing the EPO's recent practice of unlimited patentability, shrouded in more or less euphemistic wordings. Among the latter, some propose to make programs directly claimable, so as to ensure that software patents are not only granted but achieve maximal blocking effects. This latter group obtained a 2/3 majority, with some exceptions. We document in tabular form what was at stake, what various parties recommended, and what JURI finally voted for on 2003/06/17. Patentability Legislation Benchmarking Test Suite In order to test a law proposal, we try it out on a set of sample innovations. Each innovation is described in terms of prior art, a technical contribution (invention) and a small set of claims. Assuming that the descriptions are correct, we then test our proposed legislation on them. The focus is on clarity and adequacy: does the proposed rule lead to a predictable verdict? Which of the claims, if any, will be accepted? Is this result what we want? We try out different law proposals for the same test series and see which scores best. Software professionals believe that you should "first fix the bugs, then release the code". Test suites are a common way of achieving this. Pursuant to Art 27 TRIPS, legislation belongs to a "field of technology" called "social engineering", doesn't it? Technology or not, it is time to approach legislation with the same methodological rigor that is applicable wherever bad design decisions can significantly affect people's lives. Bessen & Hunt 2003/05 Study rich empirical data show that (1) software patents do not work "just like any other kind of patents", (2) software patenting has lead to a decrease in innovative activity among those enterprises who patent most FFII Community Tool Allows you to register for our meeting, to contact MEPs, and to cooperate in other ways EU event planning mailing list FFII/Eurolinux 2003/04 Letter to Software Creators and Users The European Parliament is likely to ratify a Software Patent Directive, possibly with helpful amendments, in May. As a software creator/user, your participation can make a difference, even if you are willing to spend less than 1 hour. Here are a few simple and effective things to do. Call for Action The European Commission's proposal for the patentability of software innovations requires a clear response from the European Parliament, the member state governments and other political players. Here is what we think should be done. 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. 2003/07/01-2 STB: Software Patent Directive Amendments Time to work decide on submission of amendments to the software patent directive proposal is running out. FFII has proposed one set of amendments that stick as closely as possible to the original proposal while debugging and somewhat simplifying it. An alternative small set of amendments would "cut the crap" and rewrite the directive from scratch. We present and explain the two approaches. Software Patent Discussions in and near the European Parliament in 2003 The European Parliament may pass or reject the Software Patentability Directive Proposal of the European Commission immediately after plenary discussion on 2003-09-01. The most likely course is that it will propose amendments. Currently many members of the three concerned commissions (juri, itre, cult) have lost confidence in the Newspeak from the European Patent Office (EPO), in which the proposal is written. We are trying to keep track of the Parliament's schedule and to organise some complementary occasions for an informed discussion. In fact we want more than that: justice. The patent lobby has trampled on our rights without justification and is asking MEPs to perpetuate the injustice. We ask for a fair trial. Only the European Parliament can offer it. FFII: Software Patents in Europe For the last few years the European Patent Office (EPO) has, contrary to the letter and spirit of the existing law, granted more than 30000 patents on computer-implemented rules of organisation and calculation (programs for computers). Now Europe's patent movement is pressing to consolidate this practise by writing a new law. Europe's programmers and citizens are facing considerable risks. Here you find the basic documentation, starting from a short overview and the latest news.