Re: [Patents] newsscan: Software patent limits 'go too far'

[Jean-Baptiste Soufron <jbsoufron@free.fr>]

> Yes, I see. After the oil company example you gave in this mail I can
> understand that judges change the law when needed. But I'm still
> irritated by the information that the EPO changed the way it
> interprets the EPC themselfes without needing intervention from anyone
> outside the EPO. In combination with the fact that the EPO is
> completely autonomous in legal as in finacial terms(1999 it had 1.3
> Billion DM income with 250 Million DM in revenue...[1]), I can
> describe this situation as out of control.

Well, to my mind, this happened because there were only one kind of
people trying to make their point in courts : softwares patents
lobbyists! 

Just as I said, all the jurisprudence system is a dynamic system
reacting to pressures from society. If the pressure comes only from one
side, it won't stand very hard against it! It's not their job. As long
as patents lobbyists were giving their point of view to judges, the
situation was evolving at their advantage. Now that antipatents people
are telling their opinion, everything is becoming much more balanced and
it will probably evolve in the good way. 

It's not a short-term process. The oil problem I was speaking about took
40 years and is not yet completely finished. The legislator tried to
enact several law that all failed but, gradually, the jurisprudence
begun findind solutions. 
 
> I've found one case where the EPO fixed an error it did(likely only
> due to broad public protest) but this does not qualify as control to
> me.
> 
> This is just a rough idea, nothing studied:
> 
> The only way I think the EPO would really rethink it's methods would
> be if the EPO would not have to pay a fixed base sum plus twice the
> amount of all income it had from the patent to the invalidator of a
> patent. Otherwise there would be a) no sufficient reward for the risks
> involved in nullficiation and b) no incentive to correct it's internal
> guidelines.

This is very true! 
EPO should be fined when a patent is invalidated in court!