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EuroLinux Calls for
European Governments EuroLinux Alliance For immediate Release Metz, Munich & Paris, 2000-11-20 - The Diplomatic Conference to revise the European Patent Convention has started today in Munich. A key issue during this conference relates to the extension of the patent system to software in Europe. For obvious reasons related to its financial structure, the European Patent Office favours an extension of the patent system to software. However 55,000 citizens, including 2000 corporate executives, have signed so far the EuroLinux Petition to protect software innovation in Europe. 200 European companies are sponsoring the EuroLinux petition and more than 100 companies have publicly voiced out their opinion. There is a consensus among economists and computer programmers that an extension of the patent system to software would seriously harm innovation and competition in the European software industry (http://petition.eurolinux.org/reference/economy.html). The EuroLinux petition was taken into account by the European Parliament which hosted on October 11th in Brussels a conference on Software patents and e-commerce in Europe (http://petition.eurolinux.org/europarl). The EuroLinux petition was taken into account by the European Commission on October 19th which is now researching the economic impact of software patents and organising a consultation (http://petition.eurolinux.org/pr5.html). Awareness on the dangers of software patents has raised to high levels within European politicians and civil servants circles. It is now admitted that software patents, as they exist in the United States, tend to harm innovation, create tremendous legal risks for small and medium enterprises and reduce the incentive for knowledge sharing. However, the European Patent Office (EPO) council of administration still plans to legalise software patents this week in Munich, during the ongoing revision conference of the Munich Convention This revision process is completely independent from the European Union. This revision process is mostly managed by official representatives of national patent offices at the EPO, who tend to vote, for obvious reasons, in favour of any extension of the patent system unless they receive strict instructions not to do so. During the last three months, the vast majority of European governments (including Denmark, France, Germany and the United Kingdom) have given their official representatives very strict instructions in order to postpone any decision on software patents and wait for the end of the ongoing consultation launched by the European Commission. It is not certain however that this majority, which represents more than 75% of Europe in terms of number of citizens, will be sufficient to block the plans of the EPO council of administration. The voting procedure designed by the council of administration of the EPO last September requires a 2/3 majority to postpone this decision. A coalition of small countries (ex. Lichtenstein, Cyprus) and countries which are not member of the European Union (ex. Switzerland, Turkey) together with a weak minority of 2 EU member countries, may be sufficient to force the rest of Europe to legalise software patents. More details on this voting procedure can be found on the EuroLinux Web ( http://petition.eurolinux.org/munich/procedure.html), including a detailed analysis of how European governments could regain control of the Diplomatic Conference and of the European Patent Office. Bernard Lang of AFUL, member of the EuroLinux alliance, notices that "The current situation in Munich already shows a clear lack of democratic control on the European Patent Office, making this organisation very difficult to manage even for our governments. Unless national governments give very strict orders to their representatives at the EPO, their tenuous hold will be further weakened, paving the way for unpredictable extensions of the patent system under the pressure of the patent lobby, without any provision for democratic debate and control by elected bodies." In an interview to Spiegel, Herta Däubler-Gmelin, German Ministry of Justice, warned that it was not acceptable to let small countries such as Cyprus or Lichtenstein take very important decisions with broad economic impact for the rest of Europe and that the European Union should be the natural organisation for a democratic debate on software patents. ReferencesDiplomatic
Conference to revise the European Patent Convention
- The EuroLinux Petition for a Software Patent Free Europe - http://petition.eurolinux.org EuroLinux Sponsors - http://petition.eurolinux.org/sponsors Statements for Software Patent Free Europe - http://petition.eurolinux.org/statements The EuroLinux Public Consultation - http://petition.eurolinux.org/consultation Softwarepatente - SPIEGEL ONLINE - 27. Oktober
2000 The EuroLinux File on Software Patents - http://petition.eurolinux.org/reference About EuroLinux - www.eurolinux.orgThe EuroLinux Alliance for a Free Information Infrastructure is an open coalition of commercial companies and non-profit associations united to promote and protect a vigorous European Software Culture based on Open Standards, Open Competition, Linux and Open Source Software. Companies members or supporters of EuroLinux develop or sell software under free, semi-free and non-free licenses for operating systems such as Linux, MacOS or Windows. The EuroLinux Alliance launched on 2000-06-15 an electronic petition to protect software innovation in Europe. The EuroLinux petition has received so far massive support from more than 50.000 European citizens, 2000 corporate managers and 200 companies. The EuroLinux Alliance has co-organised in 1999, together with the French Embassy in Japan, the first Europe-Japan conference on Linux and Free Software. The EuroLinux Alliance is at the initiative of the www.freepatents.org web site to promote and protect innovation and competition in the European IT industry. Press Contacts France & Europe: Stéfane Fermigier sf@fermigier.com
+33-6 63 04 12 77 Permanent URL for this PR http://petition.eurolinux.org/pr/pr6.html LegaleseLinux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. |
EuroLinux
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