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Siemens and Software Patents
Commemorate Banana Union Day

Siemens has always been at the forefront of the patent movement. Yet, even those Siemens patent cadres who most actively promote software patentability within industrial and governmental organisations do not try to argue that this is beneficial, either for Siemens or for the world. They merely say that Europe has to follow the lead of the US, which sets the standards in the global market. Meanwhile, many Siemens managers in IT and telecommunications believe that patents are putting brakes on their activities and doing substantial harm to the industry.

introduction

In the late 80s and early 90s, Arno Körber, head of the patent department of Siemens, successfully installed a patent incentive system at Siemens which made the patenting numbers soar to the sky and helped leveraging the economy-of-scale advantage of Siemens as a large company.

Many at Siemens are used to the patent system and associate success experiences with it. They are afraid that the continued informatisation of many problems will erode the advantages which they have drawn from the patent game. Basically their approach is conservative: they want to repeat past success experiences. In a similar spirit, they are afraid of the profound change in the patent system which this implies and therefore keen to reassure everybody that they or course "do not want business method patents". Yet this does not prevent the Siemens patent department from applying for lots of business method patents and trivial functionality patents (see tabular listing below), nor does it prevent the patent policy representatives of Siemens from strongly endorsing and supporting all legislative initiatives which make such patents obligatory. The fear of losing the patentopoly success experience is greater than the fear of patent inflation.

A newer current of opinion among engineers and managers at Siemens thinks more sceptically about the patent process. Younger managers have told us that "patents are a dragging our foot and not needed for protecting investments in the telecommunication sector". This may be related to their experience of negotiating with QualComm and other small companies who do not develop products but only patents and who assert these patents aggressively against big players such as Siemens. Many Siemens employees have signed the Petition for a Free Europe without Software Patents. Yet this current has so far not been able to influence the presentation of Siemens on the political stage.

Among the organisations which have been under heavy influence of the Siemens patent department are ZVEI, Bitkom, BDI/Unice. Chief patent strategist Arno Körber was the author of a ZVEI paper calling for software patentability in 1999/07.

Siemens has for many years cultivated very close strategic alliance with Microsoft, another firm with a keen interested in establishing software patents.

Siemens E-Patents at the EPO

Annotated Links

->Kai Brandt 2003: Patent Protection in Europe in Danger
In an internal journal of Siemens, Dr. Kai Brandt, an independent patent attorney residing in Munich and member of the Siemens patent department, writes that the European Parliament voted to ban patenting of all innovative industrial processes that make use of software, that there is no R&D without patents, that the European Commission's original proposal was well balanced, that the EP voted for amendments because it was misled to believe that patents and opensource software are incompatible, and that Siemens boss Heinrich von Pierer has teamed up with other CEOs and associations to prevent this disaster, which is only in the interest of a few software distributors and against the interests of all innovative SMEs. Brandt fails to give his audience any usable pointers that could allow them to inform themselves about the other side's arguments.
->Siemens patent department 2002: patents are sexy, aggressive strategic use in IT area decisive for succes of Siemens
Members of the board and leaders of the patent department speak proudly about the fruits of their work of building an efficient patent incentive and management system: >6000 patents per year, 60% in software, aggressive use especially in the USA, charging of licensing fees even within the Siemens group, so as to improve the incentive effect. Siemens no longer has the image of the "peaceful giant", litigation fees have soared by 100% in the last 10 years, patent department with 200 employees is one of the most profit-oriented "patent law companies", especially in the US, which Siemens views as the key market where the future is decided, also because Europe still seems to be a bit reluctant in granting swpat.
->Siemens 2001-3/4: Potent Weapons, US system most advanced
Dr. Horst Fischer, patent department head of Siemens since 1994, declares in an interview with Siemens Webzine that patents are "potent weapons" and that software patents will play an increasingly great role for the strategy of Siemens:
Software patents even account for an increasingly large share of our portfolio. Some groups, such as Automation & Drives and Medical Solutions, have launched special initiatives for such patents. Initial registration of these property rights is increasingly occurring in the U.S., because the legal framework for software patents is very advanced there. This trend is even more pronounced in the case of patents for "business models", in other words, patents for electronic business solutions. Here we've set up a worldwide coordination and counseling center.
->Ulrich Eberl 1998: Kalter Krieg um neue Erfindungen
A Siemens patent expert reports about the new strategic importance of patents for Siemens and the market in general, and lists figures: 150 patent experts, 100K patents, 1G license revenues, strategies, battles, ambushes, ...
->Arno Koerber: What do Software Patents mean to European Industry
speech by the Siemens patent chief at an EU sponsored software patentability rally in London 1998. Explains that patents are necessary because (a) software ideas are "strategic" (b) anything strategic must be ownable (c) copyright doesn't allow idea ownership. Apart from these faulty premises, the speech contains a lot of interesting facts and thoughts.
->Pollmeier GmbH: Bedenken eines Elektronik-Unternehmens gegen Logikpatente
contains a lot of info on Siemens patenting activities in the automation field
->German Ministery of Science and Education uses Siemens Brochure to advocate software patents
Im Namen des BMBF plädiert die Patentabteilung von Siemens für die Patentierbarkeit von Software und regt Hochschulen an, Softwarepatente anzumelden.
->Arno Körber: Patentschutz aus der Sicht eines Großunternehmens
Der Autor, Arno Kvrber, geb 1934, war bis Oktober 1997 Leiter der Patentabteilung der Siemens AG und ist seitdem Reprdsentant des Hauses Siemens im gewerblichen Rechtschutz gegen|ber staatlichen und nichtstaatlichen Einrichtungen und Organisationen. Er nimmt Vorstandsfunktionen in zahlreichen Verbandsgremien wahr. Kvrber blickt auf die letzten Jahrzehnte zur|ck. Bis vor kurzem entfalteten Patente ihre Wirkung vor allem in forschungsintensiven Gebieten wie der Chemie und Pharmazie. In diesen Gebieten ist der Ausschluss von Wettbewerbern sowohl wichtig als auch, dank Stoffpatenten, leicht durchf|hrbar. In Elektronik und Informationstechnik herrschte Patentfrieden. U.a. im Interesse der Interoperabilitdt wurden Patente nur defensiv eingesetzt. Mit der Umorientierung des amerikanischen Patentsystems nach Einrichtung des CAFC dnderte sich dies jedoch zusehends. Heute ist es unerldsslich f|r Unternehmen, die beider Verabschiedung von informatischen Standards ein Wvrtchen mitreden wollen, |ber ein geeignetes Patentportfolio zu verf|gen. Um 1990 stagnierte die Zahl der Patentanmeldungen der Siemens-Mitarbeiter bei ca 2000 pro Jahr. Das lag u.a. daran, dass die Entwickler glaubten, Softwarelvsungen seien in Europa nicht patentierbar und in diesem Glauben von konservativen Patentgerichten und Patentdmtern bestdrkt wurden. Daher leistete Siemens einen aktiven Beitrag zur Rechtsfortbildung. Ferner wurden Prdmiensysteme f|r Patentanmelder eingef|hrt. In wenigen Jahren verdoppelten sich die Anmeldezahlen.
->ZVEI und Softwarepatente
Der Zentralverband der Elektronischen Industrie (ZVEI) fungierte lange Zeit als Sprachrohr der Patentabteilung von Siemens. Seine Stellungnahmen wurden z.T. direkt von deren Chef Arno Körber formuliert und allenfalls mit einer Arbeitsgruppe der Patentjuristen, niemals aber mit Ingenieuren oder Software-Entwicklern besprochen. Der ZVEI forderte dabei eine Neuregulierung der Patentierbarkeit nach US-Vorbild oder gemäß der dem weitgehend entsprechenden neuesten Praxis des Europäischen Patentamtes (EPA). Auch nach der Veröffentlichung des Swpat-Richtlinienentwurfs der Europäischen Kommission forderte der ZVEI eine noch vorbehaltlosere Bejahung der grenzenlosen Patentierbarkeit als in diesem Entwurf vorgesehen war. Nachdem im Frühjahr 2002 einige Mitglieder in nicht-juristischen Arbeitskreisen Kritik an der patentlastigen Verbandsposition geäußert hatten, begann der ZVEI, seine Position neu zu überprüfen. Die Fachpresse sprach von "Zurückrudern".
->Political Economy of the Patent System: the Mechanisms of Patent Inflation
During the last 200 years, the patent system has continually expanded. This expansion is not so much the result of conscious economic policy but rather to some automatic dynamics of political organisations, similar to monetary inflation or to the arms race. This article identifies several causes of patent inflation, traces their evolution and tries to look into the future.
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© 2005/01/06 (2004/08/24) Workgroup
english version 2004/08/16 by Hartmut PILCH