Re: [Free-sklyarov-uk] Reply from Arlene McCarthy MEP

[Alex Macfie <alex@cgce.net>]

At 00:06 17/07/03 +0100, Rui Miguel Seabra quoted Arlene McCarthy thus:
> >
> > Indeed recently, a small ten-person company in an economic black-spot 
> in the
> > UK granted a licence to a US multinational for its voice recognition 
> software
> > patents. Without European patent protection in this field, the small 
> company
> > could have found itself in the perverse situation whereby its R&D 
> efforts and
> > investment would simply have been taken by a large multinational company,
> > who, with its team of patent lawyers, would have filed a patent on this
> > invention. The EU company could have been faced subse
> > uently with patent infringement proceedings.

I'd like to know what these patents relate to. Is this company trying to 
recoup the costs of genuine R&D, or is it, as I suspect to be the case, a 
litigation company?

Surely if the UK company is granting a licence to a US multinational it is 
on a US patent. There is nothing to stop European companies from filing for 
US patents, and no amount of EU law will change that.

And, of course, without European software patent protection, no-one is able 
to enforce patents on it.

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
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