[Patents] consultation questions

[gepicaam@cybercable.fr (gepicaam)]

le 08/05/2001 00:27, PILCH Hartmut =E0 phm@a2e.de a =E9crit=A0:

>> I do not find it surprising that the French government is (pretending)
>> to argue otherwise, i.e., support restricting the patenting of
>> software.  France is a lousy place for SMEs, at least by all of the
>=20
> I doubt Greg knows enough about France.

France is not a "lousy place" for SMEs, but of course French SMEs have to
put up with more handicaps as US SMEs (native market size, language, tax
system). But this handicaps are overcome by a lot of dynamics companies.

French government takes an ambiguous stand on software patent matter, and I
hope a coming clarification :
on the one hand, Industry Minister Christian PIERRET seems sincerely
convinced that innovation has to be encouraged and that SMEs needs a better
sensitization on patent matter (he regularly insists on the importance of
patents system), on the other hand, some member of Industry's Department
(DIGITIP for example) and some congressmen's seems contaminated by
"abolitionist lobbying", especially via the influential "corps des Mines".
Amid, the prime Minister Lionel JOSPIN recently wrote that "patent has to b=
e
granted only for patentable inventions" ! Of course, such a consensual
affirmation will satisfy everyone, but will not help the legibility and
clarification of French official stance...
In private, some people of M. PIERRET's retinue explained that "French
technology lag behind international competition, and that trying to weaken
patent protection will be more favorable for French companies as for foreig=
n
companies".
I admit that this standpoint is not senseless. But, personally, I would
prefer that government encourage French became more competitive, and I'm
quite optimistic of the capacity of French SMEs to take part in the
international competition.

> Of course, if you are hostile to SMEs (like established companies and
> some European governments), than trying to weaken patent protection
> and ignoring the goal of improving patent quality is the position to
> take.  Being (or trying to be) an SME, I take, and have taken, the
> exact opposite position.  And hopefully someday I will come up with
> an idea viable enough to attract venture capital investment, and will
> damn well want to be able to patent it, even if it is software.

I assent to this remark.
=20
> So as European governments better understand the economics of attracting
> investments for their native SMEs, especially their software SMEs, I
> suspect they will be more supportive of an open, software patenting
> policy.

As European governments start reading the teachings of a certain
Californian co-design cosmology guru and proprietor of all rigorous
scientific definitions, they may well reach a stage of enlightenment at
which they will suddenly realise that software patenting stands for
"openness" and that the best way to solve Europe's problems is to go to
California and beg for a license to implement some of the innovative
policies which this guru owns, thanks to an explosion of creativity
financed by patent-hungry venture capitalists.


The more important mechanisms for protecting investments are

    product complexity
    business secret
    marketing
    complementary products
    complementary services
    customer relations

or similar, I may have to check the details again.