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Due, in part, to the effectiveness of the previous campaigns to get members of the European Parliament to listen to software developers and have their voice heard, the unelected European Patent Office have decided that the next step to allowing software patents across the entire EU is to deliberately avoid asking any of the elected representatives of any EU state. If they aren't asked, they cannot object and we don't have any option or voice. This is not a good idea - use whatever tools you have at your disposal to make sure that this is seen as not a good idea and GET THIS STOPPED! "The current plan of the patent lobby is very clear: avoid a new software patent directive, validate the EPO practice via a central patent court, and guide the hand of the courts via a decision of the Enlarged Board of Appeal. They want to avoid the intervention of the European Parliament in substantive patent law." In other words, as the voice of the people disagrees with our gravy train utopia, let's just not listen to anyone else and do what benefits us most. As a change in the law has been blocked, just change the rules to make a change in the law unnecessary. STOP IT! We have 5 weeks to stop this farce from introducing software patents across the entire EU by the backdoor. Make no mistake, if this goes through, every software patent filed in the US becomes legally enforceable in the UK and across all of the EU - without any democratic veto. ================ Begin forwarded message: Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:58:00 +0100 From: Benjamin Henrion <bhenrion@xxxxxxxx> To: news@xxxxxxxx Subject: [ffii] EPO seeks to validate software patents without the European Parliament PRESS RELEASE -- [ Europe / Economy / Innovation ] ======================================================================= EPO seeks to validate software patents without the European Parliament ======================================================================= Brussels, 17 March 2009 -- At the highest level of the European Patent Office (EPO), the legality of software patents in Europe is about to be tested. The FFII warns that the European Parliament is being bypassed by allowing a decision with EU-wide implications to be made without its involvement or any real debate. The President of the European Patent Office (EPO), Alison Brimelow, has asked the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) to decide on the interpretation of the European Patent Convention (EPC) regarding the exclusion of software from patentability. The EBA is replacing the European Parliament in order to validate software patents EU-wide without the need of a debate. Benjamin Henrion, President of the association, says: "The current plan of the patent lobby is very clear: avoid a new software patent directive, validate the EPO practice via a central patent court, and guide the hand of the courts via a decision of the Enlarged Board of Appeal. They want to avoid the intervention of the European Parliament in substantive patent law." The European Parliament has already criticized the lack of seperation of powers within the EPO in its resolution of March 2000 on human cloning: "Considering that the EPO is an institution acting as judge and party, where the attributions and procedures have to be revised. [...] Demand the revision of rules of function of the EPO in order to guarantee that this institution can publicly justify the accountability in the exercise of its functions [...]." Influancial persons such Alfons Schäfers, german lawyer and President of GRUR, were pointing at the lack of democratic control over the EPO and was calling for a return within the EU legal framework: "The EPO should become part of the European Union, like the OHIM in Alicante. To keep the EPO outside that framework is quite ridiculous at a time when the EU is expanding to the political and historical boundaries of Europe. The EU institutions - especially the European Parliament, must be given the wherewithal to exercise firm democratic control and to frame and implement European patent legislation. That is the only way to overcome the European Parliament's growing suspicion of patent law." Henrion finishes: "What the EPO is doing is taking the place of the Parliament and skip the debate. The objective of this move is to guide the hand of the judges in order to achieve validation of software patents without a new law." Interested parties have up to the last day of April to send their comments to the Enlarged Board of Appeal. ======================================================================= Links ======================================================================= * FFII page about the referral: http://www.ffii.org/EPOReferral * EPO full text for the referral to the EBoA: http://documents.epo.org/projects/babylon/eponet.nsf/0/B89D95BB305AAA8DC12574EC002C7CF6/$File/G308_en.pdf * EPO announcement of the referral: http://www.epo.org/topics/news/2008/20081024.html * European Parliament resolution on the cloning of human beings: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/comparl/tempcom/genetics/links/b5_0288_en.pdf * SUEPO: Interview with Alfons Schäfers: http://www.suepo.org/public/ex08004cpe.pdf * Permanent link to this press release: http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/EPO_seeks_to_validate_software_patents_without_the_European_Parliament ======================================================================= Contact ======================================================================= Benjamin Henrion President of the FFII +32-2-414 84 03 +32-484-566109 bhenrion@xxxxxxxx (French/English) Ivan Villanueva Berlin office +49-160-23 160 13 ivan@xxxxxxxx (Spanish/German/English) ======================================================================= About the FFII ======================================================================= The FFII is a not-for-profit association active in over fifty countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, and open standards. More than 850 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing. _______________________________________________ FFII Press Releases. (un)subscribe via https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/news, or contact media@xxxxxxxx for more information. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/
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