[Patents] Re: Company Questionnaire

[Holger Blasum blasum@muc.de]

> 
> In cooperation with danish politicians we are going to send
> a questionaire to danish software companies.

Hans, 

Thanks for doing this.  
This might be of interest as well to other places in Europe. Especially, 
as AFAIK so far all patentability surveys only regarded legal, not economic 
aspects. BTW, this is my first posting to this list, sorry it became so 
lengthy.

(As a counterexample, which would have been directed to individuals, but 
never used; for we then felt that rallying companies is more important and we 
somehow never made it to work out a nice company questionnaire, see 
http://www.ffii.org/archive/mails/swpat/1999/Nov/0022.html). 

I like very much the brevity and succinctness of your questions and 
it is a good idea to address this directly to software companies. Also 
Edward Avis's comments are pointing into the right way. In his direction, 
maybe add a question like "Are you currently including source code with 
binaries (as opposed to binary only) in your products to (some) of your 
customers? yes[] no[]
Do you think software patents will enhance or impede you from delivering 
source code with your product (open source)".  

[] no opinion, we do not deliver source code nor plan to do so  
[] impede, it will deter us from delivering source code because we easily 
might
be accused of patent infringements  
[] enhance, being able to patent our ideas will motivate us to deliver source 
code  
remark ____________________

Software patents as a political topic have been discussed for a while. Did 
you take any action concerning this issue ?  
[] contracted a lawyer
[] did economic risk/benefit analysis 
[] actually checked code for possible patent applications or possible patent
infringements 
[] participated in conferences on the issue
...
remark __________________

My only concern would be (of course this is just a laymen's personal 
opinion), if you ask questions, at least ask some in 
way that you can quantify the results. Passim below see some possible (not 
necessarily intelligent) breakdown into checkboxes. This is not to say that
that anything should be quantifiable, but only that some questions should at
least be quantifiable. 

Otherwise, we just repeat the same style that the DG XV did in their 
1997 and 1999 surveys on software patentability (sometimes they use the 
unpublished outcome as evidence for industry consensus in favor of software 
patents, eg Bernhard Mueller, Computer und Recht 1/2000) - but they cannot 
really give any hard figures or percentages (nor the exact scope of the 
sample taken or on which basis it was selected), simply because the 
questionnaire
design did not allow them to do this (nor are the questions themselves - 
asking from a legal, not an economic perspective - reusable for us).   

It is also a hard question whether one should ask persuasively or neutral... 

Please let these comments not deter you, I have always a bad habit of making 
simple things too complicated :)

Aside: I'm just thinking of the companies. When they get your posting, how 
will they handle it ? I mean it really could make a big difference if (a) the 
legal affairs deptment answers (b) the r&d development answers or (c) 
controlling or marketing answers. I think that one has to think very 
carefully about whom to address this is in the companies, for many companies 
will be rather undecided officially and one should avoid that to much 
legalese or complexity results in the questionnaire being automatically 
turned to the company's (subcontracted) patent lawyer... Maybe explicitly add 
a paragraph like "we would like you to turn this quesitonnaire to the 
controlling/marketing or Operations Research dept. (We presume that most R&D 
departments will be biased against software patents and most legal 
departments in favor of software patents).". At least one should explicitly 
asked which person in which function and department has filled out the 
questionnnaire ....
Or maybe ask both R&D and marketing? 


Kind regards, 

Holger Blasum, (junior) Application Developer, weigl !interService/avendo, 
Munich 

> 
> Have you any suggestions to the following questions?
> 
> 
> --------- questions -------
> 
> Have you any software patents?
> - Which, how (global, national - which countries)
[] Denmark
[] Europe
[] non-Europe
remarks _____________
> - How many rescources do you use to protect your patents?

[] less than 0.01% of turnover
[] 0.01-0.1% of turnover [] 0.101%-0.5% of turnover [] 0.501%-1.0% of turnover
[] more than 1.0% of turnover [] don't know 
remarks _______________

.. or maybe better ask for man-hours (including subcontractors) per year:

[] less than 50 man-hours [] 51 - 200 man-hours [] 201 - 1000 man - hours [] 
don't know/cannot give data 
remarks _________________ 


> 
> If software patentents becomes possible in Denmark, 
> would you then take patents?
> - Why would you take patents?
>  * To prevent others from taking that patent?
>  * To prevent others from using the patent?
>  * To sell licenses
> 
> Do you pay license to other companies for using their patents?
> - Which type of patents have you paid for?

[] software patents, non-Europe
[] software patents, Europe 
[] non-software patents, non-Europe 
[] non-software patents, Europe 
remarks ____________________
> 
> What does your company do to check if you are using patents
> owned by other companies?

[] search patent databases
[] consult patent lawyers
...
remarks ___________________
> 
> Do you have a risk analysis for the consequences of a trial
> against your company for breaking others patents?

very good :)
[] yes [] no [] insurance (maybe ask for insuring policies or fees ?)
remarks_____________________ 
> - How many resources do you use on this on a continued basis?
> 
> Are you pro or against software patents?

>