[Patents] Re: 80,000 signatures for software patent free Europe

[rjriley@rjriley.com (Ronald J Riley)]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Seth Johnson" <seth.johnson@realmeasures.dyndns.org>
To: <patents-admin@liberte.aful.org>
Cc: <epo@mlist.austria.eu.net>; <patents@aful.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 2:04 PM
Subject: Re: 80,000 signatures for software patent free Europe



<<Mr. Riley, I know you from the PR Forum.>>

First understand that I am not a PR pro.  In fact, much of the time I am
creating PR crisis for companies who would cheat me out of my intellectual
property.  In many way the legislative activity is much the same.

<<Given your experience in
political outreach, what methods would you recommend, and what rate
would you expect from such an approach?  When you do your advocacy for
small inventors, do you employ primarily email and web methods, or do
you pile other resources on? >>

We use a variety of methods.  Talk radio, mailings to people who have shown an
interest in the issues, pitching our story to a variety of newspaper, 
magazines,
and electronic media.  Letters to the editor & oped pieces.   Recruiting 
people
of stature to support our position (examples www.PIAUSA.org/coalition/)


<<Surely you can imagine how this petition
is being distributed.  Characterizing 80,000 signatures on this petition
in seven days as less than dramatic, seems a pretty bizarre analysis to
me.>>

Anyone who has contact with any advocacy group quickly learns to take most
claims with a grain of salt.  First I have reservations about rather these
claims are true, and second I do not think they have a prayer of stopping
software patents.  There is just too much money riding on them.

Beyond that, I think that they should stop whining about other people's
inventions and start inventing their own solutions.  That is what the patent
system is all about.  That faced with having to pay tribute to an inventor 
that
people invent even better ways of solving the problems at hand.  They can 
always
invent better methods and publish them, making them public domain if they 
object
to intellectual property.  And if they can not come up with such inventions 
they
can either pay tribute to the real inventor or wait for the patent to expire.

Ronald J. Riley  www.InventorEd.org/