Re: New Hewlett Packard patent may be a barrier to Semantic Web services adoption

What is the European Union stance on granting patents for technologies deemed essential for (linked) open data and open science applications which obviously would include commercialized research on SW technologies?

Human genes, algorithms, mathematical theories and above mentioned technologies should not even be subject of consideration for granting patents.

The USPTO and some other patent offices are ill equipped, understaffed and not knowledgeable enough to make informed decisions on which patents should be granted and which rejected outright.


 
Milton Ponson
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Project Paradigm: A structured approach to bringing the tools for sustainable development to all stakeholders worldwide by creating ICT tools for NGOs worldwide and: providing online access to web sites and repositories of data and information for sustainable development

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________________________________
 From: Martin Hepp <martin.hepp@ebusiness-unibw.org>
To: semantic-web at W3C <semantic-web@w3c.org>; public-lod@w3.org 
Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2013 3:15 PM
Subject: New Hewlett Packard patent may be a barrier to Semantic Web services adoption
 

Dear all:

Yesterday, Hewlett Packard has been granted a patent on "Policy Enforcement":

    http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8498959.html
    http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8498959.pdf

As far as I can see, it heavily constrains the commercial exploitation of research done in the Semantic Web / Semantic Web Services community from 2001-2009. 

So if you worked on policies in the context of Semantic Web Services or Semantic Business Process Management before November 2009, it may be worthwhile to check whether the patent claims inventions that you can prove to have been prior art at that time. 

This may be particularly relevant for the organizers and contributors to the various policy workshops co-located with ISWC/ESWC conferences.

I am not familiar with the legal process, but if you feel this patent claims what was already publicly known / discussed at conferences back then, please ask your employer or legal department to challenge the patent. It may otherwise put the usage of SWS in business applications at risk.

Best wishes

Martin

--------------------------------------------------------
martin hepp
e-business & web science research group
universitaet der bundeswehr muenchen

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