Re: [Patents] EPO grants Acacia patent on video streaming]

[Xavi Drudis Ferran <xdrudis@tinet.org>]

El Tue, Jan 20, 2004 at 09:36:21AM +0100, Jean-Michel POURE deia:
> > Would you agree/disagree ? Why ?
> I can only speak for myself (=nobody), but this seems relevant.
> 
> > Who would have the resources to go to court ? FFII ?
> Probably an association gathering universities, teachers, researchers, 
> programmers, people from Free software communities and companies.
> 
> Cheers, Jean-Michel Pouré
> 

I tend to think effort spent on political activism and media reach are
more useful than in juridical activism. Not only because legal warfare 
is what we want to avoid, but because what we need is the people and 
lawmakers aware. Besides it seems to me a bad moment to start lawsuits 
when law is about to change for better or worse. IANAL, but I guess
any caselaw you build on old law will not be relevant in new law.

A simpler campaign might be just showing (with some background facts
and reasoning) a number of (invalid) patents some governments, PTOs or
EU institutions are possibly "infring". Even this is too time consuming
IMHO, even if only adressed to the press and not the courts. 

But of course I'm not going to oppose anyone doing anything remotely 
useful to avoid software patents. Feel free to start the plaintiff 
coalition if you feel that's the best strategy.

-- 
- jo també vull una Europa lliure de patents de programari  -
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Xavi Drudis Ferran
xdrudis@tinet.org