
Software Patents > Players > Jean-Paul SMETS
Michel VIVANT	Jean-Paul SMETS	KONNO Hiroshi	Donald KNUTH	Bernd LUTTERBECK

Jean-Paul Smets and Software Patents

A french informaticist and economist, author of a comprehensive study on the problem of software patentability and of a book on free software. Argues against software patents from an economic and legal point of view, for the latter relying much on Vivant. His study, made in the name of the Conseil des Mines, is the only one that proposes and weighs alternative approaches to the codification of EPO practise, including a sui generis software law approach.descr: french informaticist and economist, author of a comprehensive study on the problem of software patentability and of a book on free software. Argues against software patents from an economic and legal point of view, for the latter relying much on Vivant. His study, made in the name of the Conseil des Mines, is the only one that proposes and weighs alternative approaches to the codification of EPO practise, including a sui generis software law approach.

Stimuler la concurrence et l'innovation dans la Société d'Information: Interim Report by a research group at the Corps des Mines, an organisation of the French administration which is concerned with industrial policy and is continuing to study this subject. Available in French and English. In its initial chapters, the report gives a very reader-friendly introduction to the various means of investment protection available to software companies, introduces some example software patents and analyses their micro- and macro-economic effects. Chapter 4 analyses the legal situation, starting from the European Patent Convention and French court decisions of the 1970s, all of which rejected the patenting of methods of calculation embodied in software while showing some ambiguity in cases where this calculation was used for controlling industrial processes such as oil-drilling. The study procedes to show how the caselaw of the European Patent Office gradually drifted into a chaotic situation of questionable legal status. Chapter 5 proposes precise rules for determining what is technical which are based on doctrines of the 1970s but with further detail considerations taking into account the most avanguardist forms of programming and technology. The last chapter compares several political scenarios on how patentability could be limited using these rules while at the same time accomodating possible american pressures. Within this discussion, proposals for sui generis rights are also discussed.
J.P. Smets: Software Useright: Solving Inconsistencies of Software Patents
Michel Vivant and Software Patents: , which is a polite way of saying that they do not conform to correct methods of law interpretation.