RE: [DMCA_Discuss] Re: [Patents] IT World Feature: Patently ridic ulous: What's Europe to do?

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

>       [Volkan Yüksel (ARGE-VESTMAN)]  Thank you for the long rant. I think
> without patents we would be still in stone age :-)

I think you should participate in the next WIPO essay contest on
intellectual property.  You have high chances of winning.

Among last time's winners, there were quite a few essay with statements
such as the above, in particular from people in countries which are not on
the winner side of the patent system.

Of course it is not certain at all that any country is benefitting very
much from the patent system.  US companies have had a firast mover
advantage, because their patent system was imitated by others, and some
people in the patent world of various countries keep hyping the "national
pro-patent policy of the USA" in order to create an impression that their
country must "catch up".  The less politically developped the country, the
greater the chance that the general public will be mislead by these naive
patent hype generators.

For any serious discussion about the question, what exactly patents
contribute to progress, read Machlup's report of 1958 and perhaps in
addition some of the other articles mentioned in

        http://swpat.ffii.org/archive/mirror/impact.en.html

but read it only after writing your WIPO essay.  Otherwise your chances of
winning may be severely impaired.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-12789608
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
120,000 signatures against software patents      http://www.noepatents.org/