The TRIPS Treaty and Software Patents - FFII concerns about software patentability

Here is some more educational material on the software patents issue:

http://swpat.ffii.org/stidi/trips/

If you happen to live in Europe, you can also take action, if you wish:

 http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/eubsa-swpat0202/demands/index.en.html

Excerpt from the FFII cocerns:

4. Software patents interfere with software copyright and tend to lead
to the expropriation of software creators rather than to a protection of
their property. Of numerous existing economic studies, none concludes
that software patents lead to more productivity, innovation, knowledge
diffusion or are in any other way macro-economically beneficial.
Software patentability, as proposed by CEC/BSA, moreover leads to
various inconsistencies within the patent system and invalidates central
assumptions on which it is built. As a result, anything becomes
patentable and there can no longer be any legal security.

And finally, if you are a fan of horror stories, you can review the
European Software Patent Horror Gallery at

 http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/index.en.html

I strongly urge W3C not to support the further development of this
malpractice by adopting standards that are dependent on so called
software patents. Or would you like to see a Horror Gallery of W3C
Recommendations pop up on the web eventually?

Peace,
Peter

--
Peter Berenyi
Systems Administrator
email: ber@sa.eol.hu
mobile +36 20 411 0580

Received on Saturday, 21 December 2002 10:23:01 UTC