Re: [Patents] UK Liberal Democrats anti-patent IT policy ratified

[Erik Josefsson <erikjosefsson@telia.com>]

On Wed, 19 Mar 2003 19:00:23 +0100 (CET)
PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de> wrote:

> > The party's IT policy at http://www.makeitpolicy.org.uk, which
> > includes a paragraph opposing swpat, was ratified by party
> > conference on Sunday 16
> 
> I can only find a sentence in
> 
>       http://www.makeitpolicy.org.uk/Motion.html
> 
> calling for "supporting widespread innovation by resisting the wider
> application of patents in this area".
> 
> wider than than what?
> 
> what is "this field" ?

In pdf version of "Making IT Work- Policies for Information
Technology, Policy Paper 54" I find these patent paragraphs: 

2.2.5 We do not believe that the citizen as consumer will be well served
if a wholesale failure in the copyright system leads to a drying up of
creativity as the financial incentives disappear. But we also recognize
that there are circumstances in which protection systems can have the
contrary effect of stifling creativity against the public interest. We
are especially concerned about the use of patents in the area of
computer software in this respect.

2.2.6 There are usually many ways to achieve the same objective using
computer code. The public benefits from the fact that different teams of
programmers will work on solving problems and release their separate
solutions as competitors in the market. The specific code each team has
written is protected by copyright. Allowing a wide definition of
inventiveness for patents in the field of software could lead to a
reduction in this creative activity. This might be justifiable if there
were evidence that the software industry as a whole were suffering
because of an inability to secure revenue for research and development
but there is no evidence that this is the case as the sector remains
vibrant and growing.

http://www.makeitpolicy.org.uk/ITPolicyPaper.pdf

//Erik