Summary of legal arguments

[Edward Avis <epa98@doc.ic.ac.uk>]

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I'm taking a short introduction to law as part of my computing degree.
The course lasts five weeks of which one is 'intellectual property'.
Part of the handouts for that week is an article by a British lawyer
'dispelling a few myths' about the patentability of software.  As you
might expect it does not present both sides of the argument: in
particular, it ignores the question of whether the EPO's software
patents are actually enforceable in member states.

I would like to find a short (one or two page) article giving the
opposing point of view, explaining how it is that the EPO managed to
interpret Article 52(2) to the opposite of its original meaning.
Ideally it would be written by a lawyer and in a non-partisan style.
(So references to 'Stalin' or 'stealing with a further righteous effect'
are right out.)

The economic and social questions of whether government should grant
patents on software are not important here - I just want an analysis of
whether swpats are legal in the EU now.  It should be accessible to the
layman (ie, the students taking the course) and written in English.  I
have scoured the ffii site and found lots of interesting papers and
careful analyses of the EPO's decisions, but unfortunately they are all
in German.

Can anyone recommend a suitable paper which I can suggest to the
lecturer?

- -- 
Ed Avis <epa98@doc.ic.ac.uk>
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