Paul Meller and Software Patents

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Paul Meller is Brussels correspondent for the IDG News Service. Articles often published in !ITWorld.com and used by many IDG publications.

News & Chronology

• 2006-07-06 Meller reports on EU Patent consultation results (attributes victory of 2005 and FFII replies to consultation to Florian Mueller; only mentions "open source")

• 2004-11-23 Meller reports delay of Council decision in IHT

• 2004-05-19 Meller reports fairly on Council decision controversy

Observations

• Earlier articles such as http://www.itworld.com/Man/2687/030911eupatent/index.html often extensively quote patent lobby propaganda statements, e.g. from Arlene McCarthy in 2003 ("However, she says her critics haven't read her proposed amendments. In an interview Thursday, she said she is trying to move the directive in the direction her critics are seeking.") without presenting the other side.

• Meller insists on presenting FFII & Co as "opensource" or "free software" lobby groups

• Meller reported critically about IPR Enforcement Directive mainly to the extent that such criticism came from the Nokia patent department.
• Occasionally there are exceptions to this rule.
• Mr Meller confided to an FFII lobbyist that Mr Mingorance owned a Macintosh (the "proposal.doc" which has circulated in 2002 before the official publication by the CEC was edited by Word v10, which only exists for Mac), and that he has maybe used this one to participate in the writing of the directive proposal.