EU Commission aims for software patents in 2006, says FFII
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20 January 2006 (Brussels) EU Commissioner Charlie Mc Creevy has announced the start of a drive to create a "Community Patent", which would establish the EPO as the arbitrer of patents in Europe.
Superficially sold as a package to reduce patenting costs, the Community Patent risks effectively removing national judges from patent litigation and impose EPO rulings as final law.
Regarding the need for new "harmonisation" of the EU patent system, veteran campaigner Erik Josefsson of the FFII says, "The difference between the EPO-patent and the EU-patent is very small. All EU countries already have identical patent laws (national implementations of EPC)." Further, he points out that the main winners of a new "harmonised" patent system, with English as the proposed dominant language, would be large multinationals who have tens of thousands of patents (including software patents) pending translation.
The Community Patent would open the door to huge numbers of weak patents. Pieter Hintjens, president of the FFII, points out: "the EU above all needs a technology sector that is free from the ruinously expensive litigation that is strangling the US hi-tech industry. While the cost of obtaining an EU patent is high, the cost of defending against junk patents is much higher. It is junk patents, software patents, and business process patents, backed by EPO 'judges', that form a real and present danger to the EU hi-tech industry."
In remarks made last week, a senior UK judge, Judge Jacob, said that the scenario in which the same EPO burocrats would issue patents and also sit as judge and jury on patent litigation would be a disaster for the EU.
Pieter Hintjens concludes: "even as the US is fighting off the scourge of junk patents, the EU Commission and EPO have been leading the race to the bottom, granting large numbers of weak patents, and especially, software and business process patents. McCreevy's 'community patent' does not solve the software patent problems at the EPO. Rather, it makes them worse."
The EU Commission has proposed a 10-week "consultation period" in which businesses are encouraged to provide their opinions on the suggested harmonisation. Deadline for submissions is 31 March 2006.
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