PCT (Patents, Copyright, Trademark) policy and Open Source

[Robert Osfield]

Hi Ken,

On Tuesday 27 January 2004 20:16, Ken Brown wrote:
> I am really interested in this stuff.  First all, I have to say that I
> suspect a tad bit of paranoia in the reporting about what's happening
> overseas. 

Not overseas for me.  I'm based in the Scotland, very much part of the EU for 
better or for worse.  I prefer to be view myself as informed is being even a 
tad bit paranoid :)

> What sources are you quoting that talk about criminalization
> for patent infringement?

Here's some source of information on the European situation.  Basically 
there's two directives the "Directive on Intellectual Property Rights 
Enforcement" and the "Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented 
inventions.  Two source for these are respectively:

	http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/IPEnforcementDirective

	http://ffii.org/

Both directives are controversial, the IP enforcement covers software patents 
and includes highly controversal criminal sanctions section.  This is will go 
to the vote in the European Parliament (EP) in early February.

The software patents directive which so far has been turned around at first 
vote in EP vote back in the summer which ratified that pure software is 
patentable, as per the 1974 Europen Patent Convention.  However, the likes of 
IBM, Microsoft, Nokia, the patent lawyers are heavily lobbying to revert back 
to making software patentable.  The Europen Commision is pro software patent, 
as is the Concil.  The Council and the Commision aren't democratic bodies or 
carry out their work in public.  Currently the Directive is back in the hands 
of the Council.  So this particular battle is far from one.  Once the Council 
has amended the directive, it'll be back to the EP for a final vote.

I'm not an expert on this matters, its best to go to the above links, join the 
mailing lists, sign the call for action etc.

> Meanwhile, Red Hat is a patent holder.  What say you about that?

The thing called defensive patenting, so its nothing to worry about while the 
patents sit there idle.  A waste of Red Hats time and money, but nothing too 
worrisome.

The problem comes when the likes of Red Hat start to think they have nothing 
to loose and go on the Patent offensive.  I can't ever imagine Red Hat 
becoming another SCO but management and circumstances can change.

The real dangers lurk in other organisations though, the ones with more 
patents, or less to loose by unleashing them.

Robert.




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