From Justin.Wilson@alpheus.com  Thu May 31 01:49:26 2001
From: Justin.Wilson@alpheus.com (Justin Wilson)
Date: 31 May 2001 02:49:26 +0200
Subject: [Patents] Increasing awareness of patent issues by Financial Service firms
Message-ID: <06FF73B159516008*/c=de/admd=viaT/prmd=intramail/o=notes/ou=DTAGAlpheus/s=Wilson/g=Justin/@MHS>

FYI 

According to an article in 'Securities Industry News' (www.securitiesindustry.com) on Monday May 14th, Marks & Clerk 
(UK Law firm) conducted a survey of 203 financial, commercial and technology firms. 

They comment that 'concerns are being raised that the adoption of patents could be harmful to the industry, preventing 
the transfer of best-practice procedures between organisations and hindering innovation'.The article discusses the 
increasing awareness of patents within these firms, highlighting in particular the aggressiveness of financial firms in 
this area. 

Reference is made to a survery earlier this year by the International Securities Market Association (Isma) warning that 
European financial services firms may already be in violation of patents on operational processes existing in the US. 
For example, they mention a patent granted in the US on administering a pension fund (the same patent was refused in 
Europe). Particular concern was expressed in the study regarding technology for stock exchanges. The Isma study said 
that patent protection could allow "monopolists to strangle competition, particularly given the costs involved in some 
jurisdictions of challenging a patent". 

Various patents held by financial services firms are then discussed. 

It notes that : "... strong opposition to patents, notably by the EuroLinux Alliance ... helped defer (EC) plans to 
extend patent protection." The article concludes by referring back to an earlier article from their Feb 5 edition: "In 
the financial services software area, Al-Noor Ramji, chief information officer at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, 
recently gave up intellectual property rights to software developed in-house and urged other institutions to do the 
same." 


Justin 


