The European Patent Office (EPO) wants to induce European governments to remove all legal restrictions on patentability in november 2000. The German Federal Ministery of Justice (BMJ) distributed a "Base Proposal for the Revision of the European Patent Convention" dated 2000-06-27 to the "circles interested in the patent system" at the beginning of August. Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt, Ilmenau, Magdeburg - The European Patent Office (EPO) wants to induce European governments to remove all legal restrictions on patentability in november 2000. The German Federal Ministery of Justice (BMJ) distributed a "Base Proposal for the Revision of the European Patent Convention" dated 2000-06-27 to the "circles interested in the patent system" at the beginning of August. The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) sent an open letter to the BMJ, in which it pointed out some inconsistencies in the EPO's proposal and warned about devastative effects of the EPO's expansive patent policy on innovation, competition, prosperity, education and civil rights. Ralf Schwöbel, CEO of Intradat AG, a Frankfurt based market leader in e-shop systems, explains his support for the public letter:

Recent studies show, that the European Patent Office examiners tend to grant patents on immaterial objects (such as software and business methods) even more generously than the USPTO and JPO colleagues. According to a Japanese comparative study, the EPO applies even lower standards for assessing the inventivity of immaterial objects. Moreover, for the purpose of examining the technicity of business methods, the EPO even plans to abandon its traditional request that these methods should have an "additional technical effect" beyond the ordinary use of the computer, as soon as the limitations on patentability are removed by the legislator as proposed by the EPO. Matthias Schlegel, CEO of Phaidros AG, an Ilmenau based pioneer in meta-modelling of commercial processes, comments:

Co-signer Jens Enders, CEO of MDLink GmbH, a technology leader of web-based e-business systems from Magdeburg, adds:

The "Base Proposal" completes the development, which the president of software patents workgroup of the Union of European Patent Consultants, patent attorney Jürgen Betten, predicted in several publications at the beginning of this year:

The chairman of the German Parliamentary Commission on the New Media, J�rg Tauss, sees an urgent need for the legislator to act:

The FFII letter is designed to help clarify the questions for the legislator. It suggests means of making the EPO base proposal more specific, so as to subject the EPO to an effective control by the legislator. Thereby it turns out that currently no valid reason exists for changing the law (EPC art 52), while there are good legal reasons for introducing precise and restrictive definitions for pliable terms such as "technicity" and "industrial applicability". The public letter moreover cites economic studies and the EP, which has meanwhile been signed by approximately 30000 citizens, including 400 executives of IT companies, and supporting statements from nearly 300 European politicians. But even public protests of this amplitude have so far not prompted more than a "silence in the forest" on the part of the patent system's decisionmakers. Already in June 1999 the two BMJ officers in charge of negotiating for the German delegation at the intergovernmental conference in Paris did not react to an appeal based on 5000 signatures, and gave the EPO the mandate to change the European Patent Convention. Little later, both BMJ officers were promoted to new honors in Munich. One became a leading judge at the EPO, the other the president of the German Patent Office. And today's president of the European Patent Office and initiator of the "Base Proposal", Dr. Ingo Kober, also started his career in the BMJ. The EPO finances itself from patent fees.