Declined EV50 Campaigner of the Year award

["Florian Mueller" <florian.mueller@tenanet.com>]

Dear Subscribers to the Patents-at-AFUL Mailing List,

On Tuesday evening (29 November 2005), the EU-focused newspaper European 
Voice (www.european-voice.com) presented the "EV50 Europeans of the Year" 
awards in Brussels.

The EV50 awards (www.ev50.com) comprise nine category awards and the grand 
prize for the overall "European of the Year". A jury selected 50 nominees. 
After the announcement of the nominees on 22 September, the worldwide public 
was asked to submit votes in an Internet poll until 11 November. 
Additionally, the European Voice published a paper ballot for those of its 
readers who preferred to submit their votes non-electronically.

I was proclaimed as the winner of the "EU Campaigner of the Year" category 
award for my work on the NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign. In that category, I 
was competing with five other nominees, including U2 frontman Bono and 
another rock star, Bob Geldof. The rules were such that the overall winner 
could not simultaneously win the category. Initially, I accepted the category 
award, not enthusiastically but because I did not want to cause any 
impression of an emotional overreaction by immediately declining it. I 
awaited the presentation of the remaining awards. After the overall "European 
of the Year" award had been given to Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister 
of Luxembourg, the organizers wanted to take a picture of all ten winners 
with their trophies. Before the photograph, I gave the award trophy back to 
Mr. Dennis Landsbert-Noon, the publisher of the European Voice, and left.

I told Mr. Landsbert-Noon that I had, after serious consideration, "decided 
not to accept the award", and that I will issue further statements after 
obtaining legal advice.

Obviously it was a difficult decision to decline a category award that has 
been won by famous people, most notably the late Pope John Paul II in the 
year 2002. I was fully aware of the fact that this action would potentially 
affect decisions by other award juries in the future as well as my 
relationship with the organizers and sponsors of the EV50.

My greatest concern was that by declining the EU Campaigner of the Year 
award, I would disappoint the many who have voted for me and those who have 
supported our tremendously impactful Internet campaign for votes.

However, it was in my opinion the only appropriate action, and I will soon 
explain the reasons to do so. In the meantime, please understand that I will 
not be able to answer further questions on this subject.

I also have an anecdote to tell that many will find amusing. Mr. Michel 
Rocard, a member of the European Parliament (MEP) and former prime minister 
of France, received the "MEP of the Year" award for his work on the software 
patent directive. In his acceptance speech, he mentioned Microsoft's 
sponsorship of the EV50 awards several times. While Microsoft supported the 
proposed directive, Mr. Rocard wanted to very clearly exclude software from 
the scope of patentability. Mr. Rocard had a special message for Microsoft 
and EU commissioner Charlie McCreevy: "You will discover that we were right."

Mr. Rocard could additionally have mentioned that Burson-Marsteller, a PR and 
lobbying firm with offices in many cities including Brussels, counts 
Microsoft (as well as other corporations with a similar position on software 
patents) among its clients. Burson-Marsteller was involved in the 
organization of the EV50.

Note that the 50 nominees were chosen by an independent jury, which through 
its choices demonstrated its independence.

For general information on the EV50, journalists are asked to contact the 
organizers. A number of presidents, prime ministers, parliamentarians and EU 
commissioners were personally present at the EV50 dinner.

Best regards,

Florian Mueller