[Patents] FFII Database of European Software Patents and Press Conference

[Andrea Brugiolo nick@linux.it]

On Sun, Nov 19, 2000 at 06:28:20PM -0500, Gregory Aharonian wrote:
> That aside, Hartmut is exaggerating these issues.  The programming freedom 
> of
> the world is not at stake.  

 If you can  patent something like quicksort - US  patent #5175857, see also
 http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/industry-at-risk.html -  human freedom  IS at
 stake

> [...]
> Both sets of judges issue their opinions based on prior opinions, so in 
> essence
> we have two sets of opinions that conflict.  So the question is, where did 
> one
> of these courts go wrong?  I suspect it is the Germans, because of the 
> nature
> of the conclusions. The American courts somewhat are arguing that they won't
> bad software/business patents because their natures are too ambiguous for
> simple prohibitions - you can't ban what you can't specifically describe. 
> The
> German courts pretty much are saying the opposite.  I think the American 
> court's
> attitude is more honest, until such time that the language of these 
> arguments
> is made rigorous using more formal mathematics.

 The patent I cited above is absurd enough and very simple to explain to any
 court, with simple mathematics... I don't  think they should pretend to not
 understand  what it  means, provided  somebody is  strong (powerful,  rich)
 enough to explain it to them
 
> Myself, seeing two courts so much in disagreement, I think it is a mistake 
> to
> fix the system by banning "software" patents, but rather, as I have argue 
> for
> many years (longer than Hartmut), would rather work towards fixing the 
> patent
> examination process so that most of these crappy patents don't issue (manyof
> which can be invalidated on the unambiguous grounds of lack of novelty, as
> opposed to the more trickier obviousness).

 It would be great, fixing the examination process... It *would*.
 If after so many years of arguing you can explain to me WHY it heasn't been
 fixed yet  - or better:  WHY it is  getting worse over  the years -  then I
 would be very grateful to you. Can you explain it to yourself, at least?

> And frankly, that is my bet on how the European governments will ultimately 
> decidecide.
> To play the game of global software, European companies are going to
> need software patents and the experience of patenting in a global economy 
> where
> companies from other countries are playing these games 

 games like this: http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Images/chess-flyer-crop-thumbnail.jpg ;
?

 Is this actually innovation? Do these companies really need such things for
 doing better and better? For a better world?

 Software patents should be stopped in the US, first.
 
 I  don't think  you can  stop  all of  this  absurdity by  just trying  (to
 convince) to fix the patent examination process: they would never allow.
 It's just, barely, for making money, against the (many) smallest who cannot.
 
 So what can we do?

 Please note  I've nothing against you  Greg, but it's not  simply a Pilch's
 campaign, it's  a danger not only  for the production system,  not only for
 all those individuals  (not necessarily "productive" yet) who  ever write a
 piece of code in their lives (I don't know if you do) but for everybody...

        See you
        Andrea Brugiolo

-- 
 
   Andrea Brugiolo                                          nick@linux.it
   Pluto Linux Users Group      http://www.pluto.linux.it
   Fight bad patents            http://petition.eurolinux.org
   Free Software                http://www.fsf.org, http://www.debian.org