Re: [Patents] re: UK software company kicked out of US

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

By writing

> If European companies want to be players in foreign markets (especially
> the US, Japan, China and Australia) where software patenting is alive
> and kicking, then European companies are going to have to have patenting
> strategies in those countries.  The point of my poem was that it is
> always cheaper and more cost effective to start your patenting
> strategies in your home country, much more cheaper.

Greg seems to be recommending that Europe must follow the US lead in
lowering "patent quality".  Since you need to have low quality patents
in US, JP, CN etc, it is best to have them at home also.

Talking about competition strategy, swpat are moribund all over the world,
and countries like JP and CN would be quick to follow a european lead in
getting rid of them.  Much of their patent policy has always been
justified internally as a tribute paid to US pressure, and a different
course in Europe would serve as a signal that the US pressure in this area
no longer has much weight behind it.

It is always an advantage in politics as well as in business to be able to
set the pace which the others follow.  There is some reason to hope that
at least on the patent issue we will be able to play out the chief
advantage of a political union in Europe, which is precisely in being able
to avoid being pushed around by other large would-be "standard-setters" in
global politics.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-12789608
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
130,000 signatures against software patents      http://www.noepatents.org/