[Patents] patent globalism

[PILCH Hartmut phm@a2e.de]

> What above all is needed is a _global_ approach towards solving the
> problem. Not just Europe vs. USA vs. Japan. A lot of companies has due
> to Internet become "international" . This makes the question of
> selling products in this or that country obsolete. They are simply
> selling products.

not quite.

If the Amazon patent fails in Europe (it is still in the public scrutiny
period at the EPO), Amazon could still use its patent to bar competitors
who use a 1-click interface from sending books into the US.

Protection is relativized by time (20 years) *and* space (national
borders).  The call for absolute protection is a popular error that is at
the core of the softening of EPC 52:  "If a hardware MP3 player is
technical, then so must be the software that performs the same functions"
is what patent owners and their lawyers like to think.  They forget that
today even very relative protection (such as a trademark) can give a
decisive advantage.

Also, global approaches tend to remove decisions from the public.  So far
we are not a global village, and when one day we are, and power is grabbed
by some tyranny, there will be no escape to a competing system.
 
I am quite glad that we still have some decentralisation in Europe.  With
the "Community Patent" in place, a conference in Berlin would have been
almost pointless, and the system would be even harder to reform and more
corrupt (http://www.bustpatents.com/corrupt.htm) than the US system
already is.

-phm