Setback for Tim Frain - No Commercial Basis for Software Patents
(PR stripdown, based upon Cons040408De, see also Cons040408En. German version already availabel at Cons040408FrainDe.)
The radical pro-software patent activist Tim Frain launches a petition desperately promulgating the notion of introducing software patents in the European Union. Frain, under the pay of Nokia, has advocated for the interests of patent lawyers for years. In his "Call for Action" he claims that "the innovative powers of Europe, stand alone inventors as well as small and medium sized enterpises (SMEs) or huge, multinational companies, do need patents for protecting their inventions, for funding research and development as well as for supporting licensing and technology transfer."
"Frain does not seem to count Opera when talking about the innovative powers of Europe," replies Håkon Wium Lie, technical chief of Opera Software Inc., an innovation leader in the market of web browsers and mobile phone software. Wium Lie wonders why Nokia, his business partner, allows Tim Frain the opportunity to spread his extreme positions. Opera has seen its business threatened for years by aggressive software patent privateering.
European SME associations reject the pro-patent petition of Frain. They endorse and trust in the decision of the European Union Parliament not to allow the introduction of software patents in Europe. Hundreds of thousands of software professionals convinced the Parliament in September 2003 that they do not need a law supporting patents for software. From Munich, the FFII represented roughly 50,000 of members of the various constituencies who rely on software development. Hartmut Pilch, chairman of FFII, comments: "There is no commercial basis for the introduction of patent laws covering computer programs."
Hartmut Pilch notes that the patent lobbyist Tim Frain is explicitly lying when he claims in his letter that the EU Parliament's amendments threaten the patentability of "consumer electronics, consumer devices, means of transport and medical instruments," while the version of the Directive that he promotes, that of the Council of the European Ministries, would allow this. In fact, the EU Parliament's version distinguishes these sorts of claims from patent coverage, in accordance with established law.
