From nicolas.pettiaux@linuxbe.org  Wed Nov 15 07:00:19 2000
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 08:00:19 +0100
From: Nicolas Pettiaux nicolas.pettiaux@linuxbe.org
Subject: [Patents] Information action in Belgium about software patents



Brussels, 14 November 2000

Information action in Belgium about software patents at the Belgian
 Parliament

3 Belgian representatives, Mrs Zoe Genot, Mr Yvan Mayeur and Mr Fran=E7oi=
s
Roelants du Vivier, with the logistics help from the Eurolinux Alliance,
organize an information session about software patents at the Belgian
parliament this Friday 17 November from 2.00 pm till 4.00 pm
(The room is: Salle du congr=E8s, Maison des parlementaires, 21 rue de Lo=
uvain
in Brussels)

The targeted audience is composed of : Belgian representatives (we call t=
hem
"d=E9put=E9s in French and "vertegenwoordigers" in Flemish), Belgian sena=
tors,
Belgian administrative directors and other decision makers, Belgian
journalists plus others from any country. Other representatives from the
European Parliament, decisions makers and journalists are welcome.

Like the conference that was organized by European
representative Gilles Savary at the European Parliament on 11th October 2=
000,
this conference aims at informing the decision makers before the Diplomat=
ic
Conference on 27th November 2000 in Munich that plans to
address the question of changing the Treaty that founded the European Pat=
ent
office, in order for example to allow for software patents.

More info on

http://www.european-patent-office.org/epo/dipl_conf/index.htm

about the Diplomatic conference in Munich on November 27,

and

http://www.dignatz.de/d/spotlight/eu_brussels_2000-10-11_docs_001.html

about the conference at the European Parliament on October 11.


The program for November 17 in Brussels is the following:

14.00 Welcome address by a Belgian representative,
14.05 Introduction by Prof Dr Ing Hermann Bruyninckx from the Katholieke
Universiteit te Leuven (the largest and oldest Belgian University),
14.15 Keynote: "Software Patents: The Economic Impact", a presentation by
German IT consultant Eitel Dignatz (Dignatz consulting),
15.00 "Patents and the software industry", a presentation by economists J=
ames
Bessen (Reserch on innovation) and Eric Maskin (Princeton University),
15.15 Questions to Mr Bessen and Maskin,
15.25 A Belgian perspective (speaker still to be defined)
15.40 Questions and discussion
15.55 Conclusion
16.00 End

Other speakers may be added. (The program may change to a later necessity=
)

It will most probably be impossible to have a live transmission on the we=
b
due to technical reasons. The conference will be recorded for later
 diffusion.

A petition organized by the Eurolinux Alliance asking for a moratorium an=
d a
sound economic study before any vote has been signed by more than 50000
people (see http://petition.eurolinux.org).

It has been handed over to the Belgian Minister of Economy, Mr Charles
Picque, in charge of the questions related to patents and
intellectual property. It will also be offcially sent today to the Belgia=
n
Parliament that has a special commission in charge of dealing with petiti=
ons.

Please do not hesitate to spread the information around and to invite all
interested people who would like to attend and are a "targeted audience" =
to
register by sending an email to nicolas_pettiaux@usa.net.
(Registration is recommended for easy entrance)

Best regards,

On behalfe of the Inviters and Eurolinux,

Nicolas Pettiaux

--
Nicolas Pettiaux
Avenue du P=E9rou 29 - B-1000 Bruxelles
Email: nicolas_pettiaux@usa.net





