Odp: [Patents] Dutch MP's demand triviality criteria in the law before allowing SW pats

[Jozef Halbersztadt halber@timsi.com.pl]

> The conclusion of a closed hearing today between
> members of the Commitee for Economic Affairs of the
> Dutch parliament, representatives of the VOSN (www.opensource.nl)
> and of the FENIT had an encouraging conclusion, we think.
>
> Despite the FENIT's initial plea in favour of SW pats,
> the MP's were not fooled and intend to instruct the
> Dutch secretary of state of Economic Affairs thusly:
>
> * first strict criteria for novelty, non obviousness and
> innovativeness are to be drawn up and put into the law, (if possible)
> * only then should the ban on software patents be lifted
>
> Their motivation was that novelty and non-obviousness are currently
> unapplied criteria, and that the explicit ban on swpats is the last
> barrier against the 30.000 garbage patents and more to come.
>
> The MP's recognize the special position of software versus other
> fields of technology as a means to patent *anything* "with a computer",
> and a field where vague ideas are cheap and shotgun approaches to
> obtaining patents are feasible yet undesirable business strategies.
>
> The FENIT was kindly asked to investigate the formulation of these
> criteria with the VOSN. They also propose that the 30.000 will be
> checked against these new criteria.  All parties involved realize
> that this is a relative novelty in the IP law.  We'll see what
> happens on a EU level next, I guess...
>
> The VOSN is of course eager to formulate such criteria but currently
> lacks sufficient expertise.  Hopefully discussions on this list will
> point in the right directions.
>
> Also note that bad or no criteria will mean not allowing swpats,
> as far as dutch parliament is concerned.  In that case, the MP's
> expressed interest in 'clarification' of artcl 52 by reformulating
> rather than by eliminating the text.
>
The present official EPO interpretion of non obviousness criteria (they are
the most important) you will found at
http://www.european-patent-office.org/legal/gui_lines/e/c_iv_9.htm

Jozef Halbersztadt