[Liverpool] Fwd: [Patents] FFII Open Letter calls for participation in Community Patent Consultation

[David Holden]

May be of interested given last nights discussion.

 Dave.


----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: [Patents] FFII Open Letter calls for participation in Community 
Patent Consultation
Date: Wednesday 22 Mar 2006 09:21
From: Jonas Maebe <jonas.maebe at ugent.be>
To: Liste de diffusion Aful - Patents <patents at aful.org>

PRESS RELEASE -- [ Europe / Economy / ICT ]

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FFII Open Letter calls for participation in Community Patent
Consultation
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22 March 2006 (Brussels, Belgium) The FFII urges European businesses
which produce or depend on software for their daily operations to
participate in the European Commission's consultation on the Community
Patent.  The FFII provides a detailed analysis as well as example
answers
to the questions.  The consultation's participation deadline is 31 March
2006.


Dear Corporate Supporters,

The EU Commission launched, two months ago, a consultation procedure
for a "final effort" to introduce EU-wide patents.  There is a strong
chance that this process will legitimise software patents, and make it
easier and cheaper to use them in court.  We believe this would be
very bad for the EU IT sector and all businesses that depend on it.
In our experience, software patents lead to more lawsuits, not to more
software.

The FFII has been working on analysing the consultation procedure, and
writing good answers to the Commission's questions.  Last week we also
met the Commission's Erik Nooteboom, who is in charge of the
consultation, and we expressed our concerns. We believe that the plan
to create a wider patent system is counter-productive without moves to
ban once and for all patents on ideas, methods, and algorithms, the
basics of software and the IT industry.

Our analysis is available in
* English: http://consultation.ffii.org/
* French: http://consultation.ffii.fr/
* Polish: http://www.ffii.org.pl/pat/cpat/kons/
* Dutch: http://www.ffii.be/gemeenschapsoctrooi

If you have time, read the whole analysis.  If you are in a hurry, we
have prepared some example answers.  You can also take key points and
use these to answer the questions in your own words.

It is explained in detail on http://consultation.ffii.org/How_to_Answer

As president of the FFII, the association that has been fighting for
six long years to protect your right to do business, by keeping
patents out of the software industry, I ask you to take three concrete
actions:

* First of all, answer the consultation, in your own words, in email or
on paper.
* Secondly, make a substantial donation to the FFII so that we can
continue to defend your rights.
* Lastly, forward this email to other businesses which produce or use
software so they can also answer.

The issue of software patents affects us all, and we must seize this
opportunity to influence the future laws.  It is not often that we can
make a difference, but this is one of those few times.

The FFII will be monitoring the consultation process and holding open
a dialogue with the Commission to represent you.  If you have
questions, please send them to consultation at ffii.org.

With best regards
--
Pieter Hintjens
President, FFII e.V. <pieterh at ffii.org>
http://www.ffii.org


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Background Information
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* FFII English consultation website
http://consultation.ffii.org/

* FFII French consultation website
http://consultation.ffii.fr/

* FFII Polish consultation website
http://www.ffii.org.pl/pat/cpat/kons/

* FFII Dutch consultation website
http://www.ffii.be/gemeenschapsoctrooi

* Commission consultation page
http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/indprop/patent/
consultation_en.htm

* Flaws in the consultation procedure
http://consultation.ffii.org/Press_Release

* Permanent link to this press release
http://wiki.ffii.org/Compat060322En


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Contact Information
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Benjamin Henrion, FFII Brussels, +32-2-4148403, bhenrion at ffii.org


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About FFII -- http://www.ffii.org
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The FFII is a not-for-profit association registered in twenty European
countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the
public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, open standards.
More than 850 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have
entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions
concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data
processing.


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-- 
Dr. David Holden.
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments, thanks.
See: <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html>
Public GPG key available on request.
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