From epa98@doc.ic.ac.uk Fri, 10 Dec 1999 11:11:02 +0000
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 11:11:02 +0000
From: Ed Avis epa98@doc.ic.ac.uk
Subject: [Patents] Getting large companies to lobby against software patents

Nicolas MONNET wrote:

>>The likely outcome of EU patent directive and European patent law is
>>that there will be patents on programmes, simply because the only people
>>who do not want patents are
>>       - the open source community
>>       - some independent software publishers
>>
>>All others (IP experts, lawyers, big corporations, patent offices, many
>>researchers, etc.) are in favour of software patents.
>
>Not all big corporations. I'm not nitpicking.

You could suggest to large non-software companies - those which stand
to lose from software patents - that they lobby against patents on
algorithms and business models.  Although it might seem at first that
big companies would welcome the chance to drive competitors out of the
market, a moment's thought reveals that it will usually be some
_other_ company which gets patents and starts harassing its
competitors.  I would expect large firms to realize that it is
nobody's interest to create legal minefields and extra bureaucracy.

The patent on the 'windowing' Y2K fix, which was then used to demand
protection money from Fortune 500 companies, is an example of how even
big firms are not immune.  A flood of such patents (Unisys and LZW is
another example) would mean death by a thousand cuts.

Industry associations lobby for things like competition and lower
prices in the electricity market; I would expect them to want
competition and cheaper prices in the software market.

-- 
Ed Avis
epa98@doc.ic.ac.uk




