IDG: Open source lobby struggles in EU patent debate

[Carsten Svaneborg <svanebor@mpip-mainz.mpg.de>]

Open source lobby struggles in EU patent debate
By Paul Meller IDG News Service, Brussels Bureau
09-05-2003

http://www.idg.com.sg/idgwww.nsf/unidlookup/7D507696B25B253848256D210021B08B?OpenDocument

summary:

BRUSSELS - Supporters of open source and free software saw an
extravagant lobbying exercise against a planned European Union law
on software patents backfire on them on Thursday.

:

She also said she will discard extreme amendments submitted by Green
MEPs. "I won't accept amendments that exclude patentability per se," 
she said.

:

But the message from the conference floor was clear. "We don't want patent 
protection, thank you very much," said Robert Dewar, president of Ada Core 
Technologies Inc., a small company based in New York with a division called 
ACT based in Paris, which sells programs and support mainly to defense 
companies such as Honeywell International Inc.

"The way to win is to keep innovating, not relying on software patents," he 
said. Dewar has acted as an expert witness for defendants in numerous patent 
infringement lawsuits. "As a small firm, you go unnoticed by the big software 
makers until you create something really special.

"Then you start to receive letters from patent lawyers representing big firms 
that either want to buy a license to your software at a cheap price, or they 
simply want to drive you out of business so they can pick up your idea for 
next to nothing in the bankruptcy court after you have been sunk by 
astronomical legal fees," Dewar said.

"A patent suit is the one thing that could sink us," he added.

-- 
  Mvh. Carsten Svaneborg