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

[Alex Macfie <alex@cgce.net>]

At 19:00 19/03/03 +0100, PILCH Hartmut wrote:

> 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".

That was the motion which was put to conference, which is only intended to 
summarize what is in the policy paper [Perhaps it would have been better 
without the word "wider" but then I didn't write the motion]. As such it 
has virtually no real significance.

> Sibylline phrases seem to be the standard in current party program
> writing, also in other countries, concerning this issue

That's party politics for you: it's rather the norm in policy-making. It 
seems to me that the standard in swpat, however, is not to have a policy at 
all. I don't think the other 2 main UK parties have one.

I should also mention that one candidate high on one region's LibDem list 
of European candidates (would be the next elected in that region if the LDs 
gain an extra seat there), a lady called Sharon Bowles, has links with the 
dark side (she is a patent attorney).

Alex

--
Alex Macfie                                     www.cgce.net   alex@cgce.net
         Trewarren, Llanddewi Rhydderch, Abergavenny, Gwent NP7 9UT
     "The exclusive right to invention [is] given not of natural right,
            but for the benefit of society." -- Thomas Jefferson