Charles E. Perkins' interview by FFII Brussels, 3 and 4 may 2006, the first edition of the "European Inventor of the Year" is held at the Hotel Le Plaza in with the gala dinner and awards ceremony taking place at the Autoworld Museum on 3 May. Organised by both the European Commission and the European Patent Office, the aim of this event is to promote software patents in Europe. FFII couldn't miss this "exceptional" manifestation. For much informations, see http://www.european-inventor.org/index.php
One of the nominees in the non-European countries category was Charles E. Perkins, who worked at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Centre in Hawthorn, New York, when they developed mobile IP, enabling mobile devices, such as laptop computers, to be moved between different networks. "To ensure safety for use in a corporate environment, he used an encryption method, effectively blocking malicious code by mathematically verifying messages that were intended for the addressee. Hailed as the "father of mobile IP technology", the American inventor won several IBM Invention Achievement Awards and a Service Award for contributions to the Internet Architectural Board". For much informations, see http://www.european-inventor.org/nominees_ip.php
Here's a peace of the transcription of our interviews at the Autoworld.
FFII: Hi ! I am actually representing FFII, a non-profit association supporting the development of information goods for public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, and open standards... having shortly presented FFII, Benjamin introduces the problematic of software patents in Europe. Do you know that in Europe algorithms are supposed to be not patentable? Charles E. Perkins: I think that is a good idea. FFII: Are you aware that EPO delivers patents on algorythms? Charles E. Perkins: I am personnaly not aware that they do deliver such patents... But I think it must be the common pratic of industries such as Google or Nokia he presently works to request such patents. [...] Developping a program costs a lot of time and money, in a certain view the pratic may be comprehensible. FFII: [...] Do you think it is a good solution for Europe to make algorithms patentable? Is there another adequate solution to really promote innovation and make Europe competitive? Charles E. Perkins: it's a problematic question because developping software is really expensive, and patent seems to be the sole solution to protect innovation... FFII: Have you heard about the BlackBerry case in Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry mobile device, has just countersued Visto Corp., a software company that sued RIM last week over patents on wireless e-mail ? Charles E. Perkins: Yes. It is quite an odd story... Laughs
[...]
FFII: Last year an European Commission directive making software patentable failed. Have you heard about the new project of European Commission directive concerning the idea of Community patent? The project is especially promoted by Nokia, Alcatel, Siemens... Another issue into which such groups are involved is the EPLA Patent Litigation Agreement, another subtil way to make software patentable... Charles E. Perkins: Well. I work for Nokia... I think they only want to have certain level of IPR protection. They simply want to have the same ability to compete with the other groups... I don't believe they have a specific interest into promoting patent software... FFII: The problem is that EPO (European Patent Office) have granted software patents. But theorically, software are not patentable referring to European Patent Convention (Munich, 1973). Software as other intellectual creations canno't be patented... Charles E. Perkins: I think it is a good thing not being patentable. FFII: ...But EPO interpretes the sphere of exceptions narrowly and consider that "computer-implemented invention" (or software having a "further technical effect") is patentable. Charles E. Perkins: Well, I am not a lawyer, it seems to me a very complicated situation. FFII: The problem is that EPO is a non-European institution... [...]
What's paradoxical is that Charles E. Perkins, a great developper now working for Nokia, which holds a lot of software patents granted by the EPO, tends to consider that software in itself should not be patented though at the same time he reckons the necessity of protecting the expensive process of developping software.
