FFII-UK: UKPO 'Facts and Fiction' is all fiction

press release

FFII-UK deplores the continuing misinformation presented in the recent Fact and Fiction document distributed by the UKPO. The document continues to peddle old fictions, presents hardly a shred of evidence and continues to promote the patentability of software which threatens innovation both in the UK and across Europe.

This is particularly unfortunate given the document's clear acknowledgement that the patent system only exists to promote innovation - which is not the case in software where patents threaten rather than promote innovation.

The document is simply a summary of all fallacies spread by proponents of software patents until now. The requirement for a "technical contribution", which is supposed to prevent pure software and business method patents, is toothless. Such a technical contribution is already required today by the European Patent Office, and can consist of something like reducing the number of necessary mouse clicks to buy something. A whole list of granted business method patents which make a "technical contribution" can be seen at http://webshop.ffii.org.

The Commission and Council proposals merely codify this practice, and as such would make sure that such patents would become uniformly enforceable throughout Europe.

We are also concerned that a supposedly neutral, government funded, administrative agency is taking such as strongly partisan role in this debate, particularly given the inherent conflict of interest in the Patent Offices' role that encompasses providing impartial advice while simultaneously having a significant stake in the resulting outcomes.