[Patents] Re: english summary of Hansen thesis

[phm@a2e.de (PILCH Hartmut)]

> It is interesting that german courts have overruled EPO decisions. I
> wonder how you in a lawsuit could convince a Danish judge to do the
> same thing.  After all, we have accepted European patents in DK, and
> we do not even have a case where someone have been claimed to pay
> royalty and is ready to take the case to the court.

There have not been any infringement procedings in Germany either.  Only
some out-of-court threats so far.

In Germany it was at mostly the patent office that rejected certain
patents which the EPO had granted.  Only then companies like IBM and
Siemens took the cases to the courts and, assisted by a large peer group
of patent lawyers, told the courts how parochial and recalcitrant they
were in failing to follow the european and global trend, see also

        http://swpat.ffii.org/vreji/papri/boch97-koerber/

Still the courts resisted to some degree.  Especially the BPatG/17 (17th
senate) has said at many occasions that the EPO was wrong.  Usually the
BGH/10 overruled the BPatG/17 and brought jurisdiction closer to the EPO
line.  Only after that the DPMA (german patent office) followed suit, but
in recent years its representatives (such as Mr. Tauchert) have also
joined the choir of the patent lawyers who pressed for a more docile
attitude toward the EPO.

The issue shows a failure of a control mechanism in an international
institution:  thanks to its international nimbus, the institution starts
controlling those who should actually, according to the statute, be
controlling it.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch                                          http://phm.ffii.org/
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
100,000 signatures against software patents      http://www.noepatents.org/