Re: [Patents] Software Patents: The Patent Trap

[Bernard Lang <Bernard.Lang@inria.fr>]

On Mon, Feb 25, 2002 at 02:46:45PM +0100, Bouthier Christophe wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 22, 2002 at 03:16:03PM -0500, Gregory Aharonian wrote:
> > Chris,
> >     They are interesting questions.  I shall give them some thought.
> 
> Thanks. I would really like to have your point of view on thoses two
> points.
> 
> 
> > But what you have to keep in mind is that they are mostly considerations
> > that are not part of intellectual property laws.  That is, IP laws take
> > about "process", not how much the process costs to make, distribute,
> > improve, etc.  
> 
> Well, if you see the text from the European Commission,
> http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/indprop/com02-92en.pdf
> the first page is about how much the process costs to make and to
> improve :
> " Given the maturity that today's software industry has achieved, many
>   improvements of software are increasingly difficult and expensive to 
>   achieve while, at the same time, they can easily be copied."
> 
> Whether this sentence is true or false is not the point here. The point
> is that the introductionnary text of the proposition is really about
> the costs of the process. And, as I understand it, this introductionnary
> text seems to be here as a proof that software patents are needed.

It is certainly proof that economic considerations are to be taken
into account when deciding that a protection system is needed.
Indeed, this is always a major argument (typically in biotech, they
emphasize the cost of research).
  It so happen that, despite the fact that I keep asking for economic
studies in favor of software patents, I was never given a reference to
a single one.  But the Greg search engine may possibly answer that
question.

  It is however quite true that the law does not have to mention
economics when stated or applied (though penalties may be economically
based).  But economics (and other issues) must taken into account
when deciding what the law should be, and defining its perimeter of
application.

-- 
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