[A2k] New EU Patent Policy Project: Campaigner Responds to EC's Questionnaire]

[Michelle Childs]

NEW EU PATENT POLICY PROJECT:
ANTI-SOFTWARE PATENT CAMPAIGNER RESPONDS
TO EUROPEAN COMMISSION'S QUESTIONNAIRE

Companies, organizations and citizens encouraged
to submit prepared set of answers to the EC in their own name
"in order to stress that most of Europe's IT industry is
against software patents and patent inflation" --
Deadline for writing to the EC is March 31

Brussels (March 8, 2006) -- On January 16, the European Commission (EC)
published a questionnaire on the future of the European patent system,
covering a broad range of policy issues such as an EU-wide community patent,
the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA), and other measures of
streamlining the European patent system. Such consultations are preparatory
to new legislative proposals, which pundits expect the EC to put forward
after the summer.

Some campaigners have already warned that the EU is once again working on
ways to strengthen the legal basis of software patents in Europe. Pro-patent
lobbyists such as SAP lawyer Guenther Schmalz confirmed in public that "it
is starting again". The European Parliament had thrown out a proposal for a
software patent directive on July 6 last year.

Companies, organizations and individuals who would like to tell the EU their
opinion on what its patent policy should look like have until the end of
this month to answer the EC's questionnaire. But in order to do so, "one has
to wade through hundreds of pages of legislative proposals and related
documentation", according to Florian Mueller, the founder of the
award-winning NoSoftwarePatents campaign: "It's the usual EU lobby-cracy.
Still it's very important that many of us write to the EC in order to stress
that most of Europe's IT industry is against software patents and patent
inflation."

The campaigner, who has been listed among the "top 50 most influential
figures in intellectual property", today published a 13-page position paper
as a PDF file
(http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/PATSTRATpositionpaper.pdf)
and related explanations
(http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/florian-mueller-blog/position-paper/)
in his blog. Everyone is free to submit that document to the EC in his own
name.

A three-page "Quick Facts" PDF document
(http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/PATSTRATquickfacts.pdf)
explains what the new EU patent policy project is about and why it is
important from the perspective of software patents. According to Mueller,
some of the proposals could be agreed upon at the intergovernmental level
without any decision-making authority on the part of the European
Parliament, which is feared by pro-patent lobbyists because of its landmark
decisions in 2003 and 2005. But national parliaments, several of which
expressed opinions during the row over the software patent directive, may
have a more influential role this time: some decisions may have to be
ratified by them.

Mueller's position paper is already supported by 1&1 Internet AG (Europe's
largest Web hosting company), Materna GmbH (a German IT and
telecommunications company), and MySQL AB (Europe's largest open-source
software company).

NOTE: Florian Mueller founded the NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign in 2004
with the support of three corporate sponsors (1&1, Red Hat, MySQL AB), and
managed it until March of 2005. He then gave his website to the Foundation
for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), the leading European pressure
group that opposes the patentability of computer programs.  In connection
with the EU's new patent policy initiative, Mueller is active on behalf of a
group of European IT companies, including Europe's largest Web hosting
company 1&1 Internet AG, German IT and telecommunications company Materna
GmbH, and Swedish-based MySQL AB, Europe's largest open-source software
company.

For his efforts against software patents, Mueller has been nominated as one
of the "top 50 most influential figures in intellectual property" by
Managing Intellectual Property magazine, and as one of the 50 "Silicon
Agenda Setters". His NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign received the "CNET
Networks UK Technology Award" in the "Outstanding Contribution to Software
Development" category, and the EU-focused newspaper European Voice lists him
as the European "Campaigner of the Year 2005" (www.EV50.com) after he
received more votes in a public poll than U2 frontman Bono and other
candidates.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Florian Mueller
fmueller.nosoftwarepatents@gmail.com
phone +49-8151-21088



--
Michelle Childs -Head of European Affairs
Consumer Project on Technology in London
24, Highbury Crescent, London, N5 1RX,UK.
Tel:+44(0)207 226 6663 ex 252.
Mob:+44(0)790 386 4642. Fax: +44(0)207 354 0607
http://www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC
1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA .Tel.:
+1.202.332.2670,Fax: +1.202.332.2673

Consumer Project on Technology in Geneva
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Tel: +41 22 791 6727