Single EU patent law good for US giants, bad for small EU firms

[Jonas Maebe <jonas.maebe@ugent.be>]

PRESS RELEASE -- [ Europe / Economy / ICT ]

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Single EU patent law good for US giants, bad for small EU firms
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Brussels, 4 April 2007 -- EU Commissioner McCreevy today announced his plans 
for an EU-wide patent law. The Foundation for a Free Information 
Infrastructure, which represents more than 3,000
small-to-medium IT firms and 8,000 IT professionals, says that this proposal 
is based on flawed assumptions and will make it easier for large US companies 
to sue small European IT firms.

FFII President Pieter Hintjens explains, "The EU is following the US down the 
risky path of a central patent jurisdiction, when this experiment has failed miserably 
in the US." New studies to be
presented at a conference organised by the FFII in Brussels in May, show that 
in all industries except pharmaceutics, the US patent system has slowed-down, 
not promoted, innovation.

"The Commission insults the many SMEs who participated in its Patent 
Consultation by claiming that they are uninformed when they say the patent system 
does not fit in their business model. Reducing
financial burdens on venture capitalists, like in the US, would be much more 
fruitful than proposing to throw even more money at 'reeducating' companies 
to agree with the Commission's patent
obsession," he added.

The Commission explains its patent fixation by noting that there is a strong 
correlation between its innovation indicators and patenting activity. Since 
these indicators are however partially based on
patenting activity, the absence of such correlation would be most peculiar. 
Moreover, as any first year statistician knows: correlation does not imply 
causation.

"There are also some positive notes. The Commission insists on independent 
judges, and recognises that the the patent system as it stands today is largely 
unsuited for SMEs. But its focus on patent
litigation costs is like putting lipstick on a pig. Unless the quality problems in 
the European Patent Office's functioning are addressed, cheaper litigation will 
only make matters worse", Hintjens said.

He concluded, "Cheaper litigation by itself would merely result in a US-like 
litigation explosion, which is devastating for small companies. This is a 
high-risk experiment jeopardising the European
software sector, which depends on SMEs. It's a mistake to launch this, without 
proper study, just as the EU economy is starting to beat the US economy."


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Links
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* Eupaco2: The European Patent Conference, Brussels, 15-16 May 2007
http://www.eupaco.org/eupaco2

* Commission: Communication from the Commission to the European
Parliament and the Council: Enhancing the patent system in Europe
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/indprop/docs/patent/strategy_en.pdf

* FFII: Commission cheats European SMEs in patent consultation
http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/Commission_cheats_European_SMEs_in_patent_consultation

* FFII: IT Industry Association warns MEPs about dangers of proposed
European patent courts
http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/IT_Industry_Association_warns_MEPs_about_dangers_of_proposed_European_patent_courts

* Permanent link to this press release
http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/Single_EU_patent_law_good_for_US_giants%2C_bad_for_small_EU_firms


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Contact Information
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Benjamin Henrion
FFII Brussels
+32-2-414 84 03 (fixed)
+32-484-56 61 09 (mobile)
bhenrion at ffii.org
(French/English)


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About the FFII -- http://www.ffii.org
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The FFII is a not-for-profit association registered in twenty European
countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the
public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, open standards.
More than 850 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have
entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions
concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing.