[Patents] Dutch Secretary Of State answers VOSN letter

[Luuk van Dijk Luuk.van.Dijk@xs4all.nl]

LS.

The Dutch Secretary of State of Economic Affairs,
upon request to do so by the Parliamentary Committee for Economic 
Affairs, has answered the letter sent by the VOSN (www.vosn.nl) 
urging him to reconsider the official position of the Netherlands
in the Munich conference last november, and on software
patents in general. (this was when it seemed that NL was in
favour of scrapping 52(c)2.

Our letter and his answer (both in dutch) can be found on
        
http://vereniging.opensource.nl/werkgroepen/PR+A/patent/work_in_progress/

(url will change later this week)

In brief, the secretary holds the opinion that the law
is currently unclear, keeping SME's believing incorrectly
that software cannot be patented, that software should
not be treated differently than other technologies, and that
searching the patent databases should not be seen as a heavy
excercise bringing only burdens, but as a means of obtaining
solutions to problems without having to invent them oneself.

He does admit that some patents granted in the US are 'undesireable'.

Also, it becomes clear that the dutch vote against scrapping 52(c)2
in Munich was not taken because of worries over softwarepatents,
but out of loyalty to the pending EC consultation.

(Also, the secretary mentions that some part of article 52 was changed
to conform to the TRIPS agreement, to state that only technology can be 
patented. Can someone explain what & how?) 

The first reaction to the EC discussion paper of the dutch governement
is called 'positive', and some of its conclusions are repeated.

Obviously the secretary has not read our comment to the EC paper 
(http://vereniging.opensource.nl/werkgroepen/PR+A/patent/work_in_progress/opencomment.html
 )
And it is probably not going to be easy to convince him, but
at least the dialogue with relevant politicians is there.  sigh.

Volunteers wanting to help us with an in depth answer this week 
to the stts (in dutch) are welcome to mail yours truly.

We would also like to hear about similar counter-lobby efforts
in other countries.

Regards,
        Luuk van Dijk

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Mind over Matter         Mind.over.Matter@xs4all.nl
The Netherlands                tel +31 6 224 97 227
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