Parliamentary Evening Berlin 2004-01-28

Introduction
Annotated Links

introduction

The European Parliament has turned the tables: A planned directive for the legalization of 30,000 illegally granted software patents has turned into a directive that unambiguously affirms the voidness of these patents. Whereas in April 2003 the Council of the EU argued for the "protection of patents" in the software domain, in September 2003 the European Parliament has decided for a protection of software developers from patents. While the german federal government agitated for program claims in the Council and took a leading role in their implementation, the European Parliament has voted with a 90-percent majority against program claims. The parliament thereby resisted various attempts of deceit and intimidation. However, now the ball is back in the court of the Council. The patent policy makers of the federal government continue making efforts to keep their absolute rule over legislation in the domain of patent law and to use it for the benefit of the patent lawyers guild. If the federal ministry of justice does not receive public written guidelines from higher authority, it will continue to work towards unlimited patentability from within back rooms in Brussels while at the same time producing appeasing but empty phrases as information about its policies. The FFII invites members of parliament and ministry officers to an event on Wednesday, January 28, 2004, in Berlin, in order to look for ways to work out those guidelines.

The parliamentary evening takes place at January 28, 2004, 7:00pm in the Hilton Hotel Berlin, Mohrenstraße 30, 10117 Berlin.

About 40-60 persons are expected to attend, including 10-20 politicians.

This event is organised under the auspices/patronage of MP Ulrich Kelber.

An additional parliamentary evening has been scheduled for March 10, 2004, 7:00pm in the palais of the German Parliamentary Society, Friedrich-Ebert-Platz 2, 10117 Berlin. That event is sized for about 35 persons.

Registration is done by the participation system. Only registered persons are admitted.

Please direct further questions to the project management: user SwpBund0401-help on machine ffii org .

Annotated Links

Einladungsschreiben: This invitation was sent to numerous parliamentarians, ministerial officials et al.
Einladungsschreiben: Thoughts by project leader Christian Cornelssen about the subjects of this evening
ESR Pollmeier: Softwareaptente: Analysen des Referenten Stefan Pollmeier und seiner Firma zum Thema
Parliamentary Evening Berlin 2004-03-10: The patent policy makers of the federal government continue making efforts to keep their absolute rule over legislation in the domain of patent law and to use it for the benefit of the patent lawyers guild. If the federal ministry of justice does not receive public written guidelines from higher authority, it will continue to work towards unlimited patentability from within back rooms in Brussels while at the same time producing appeasing but empty phrases as information about its policies. The FFII invites to an event on Wednesday, March 10, 2004, in Berlin, in order to look for ways to work out those guidelines.
Calls for Action: Make sure that calls for action are supported by key actors.
Europarl 2003-09-24: Amended Software Patent Directive: Consolidated version of the amended directive "on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions" for which the European Parliament voted on 2003-09-24.
Antwortbrief der Justizministerin (p. 1 and p. 2)
Tauss & Kelber 2003-09-24: EP erklärt Trivialpatenten eine Absage: Pressemitteilung der zweiter Bundesabgeordneter, die in der Politik der SPD zu Fragen der Informationellen Infrastrukturen führend sind. Tauss und Kelber fordern die Kommission und den Rat auf, den Beschluss des EP zu unterstützen.
DE Justice Ministry 03-09-26: Only ABS Inventions, not Software as Such: In a statement on the European Parliament's Vote, the patent law department of the German Ministry of Justice (BMJ) evades the question of whether the EP drew the right kind of limits. Instead the BMJ says that the term "software patents" is misleading because "pure source codes are not patentable" and only "computer-implemented inventions" are patentable. As an example of a "computer-implemented invention", the BMJ mentions the "anti-blocking system". The BMJ does not answer the question of whether a system and method involving only general-purpose computing equipment is a "computer-implemented invention". But it becomes clear from the text that they want nothing to be excluded from patentability and they imply that the EPC should be interpreted in this way. However they fail to clearly say that, thereby misleading less attentive readers. The BMJ's only contribution to the debate has so far consisted in attempts to impose misleading terminology, so as to be able to justify whatever the patent judiciary may chose to do.
see also What is a Computer-Implemented Invention?, Europarl 2003-09-24: Amended Software Patent Directive, BMJ: Ängstlicher Vorreiter der Patentinflation in DE und EU and EU Council and Software Patents
BMJ: Ängstlicher Vorreiter der Patentinflation in DE und EU: Für alle Gesetzgebung im Bereich des Patentwesens ist innerhalb der Bundesregierung das Bundesministerium der Justiz (BMJ) zuständig. Das BMJ unterhält in seiner Abteilung für Industrie und Handel ein eigenes Patentreferat. Zum Geschäftsbereich des BMJ gehören ferner das Deutsche Patent- und Markenamt (DPMA), das Bundespatentgericht (BPatG) und der Bundesgerichtshof (BGH). Zu all diesen Organisationen und auch zum Europäischen Patentamt (EPA) hin bestehen innige personelle Verflechtungen. Das BMJ-Patentreferat ist personell schwach ausgestattet und verlässt sich daher auf EPA, DPMA und andere Patentbewegungs-Institutionen. Die Karierre der BMJ-Beamten verläuft häufig innerhalb des Patentwesens. Sie folgen im allgemeinen (aus Gewohnheit) wortgetreu deren (von wenigen Instanzen beschlossener) herrschender Meinung und beschränken die argumentative Auseinandersetzung meist von vorneherein auf grammatische Fragen. Innerhalb der Bundesregierung und des Europäischen Rates vertreten sie energisch die Interessen der Patentanwälte führender Großkonzerne und in zweiter Linie der Patentinstitutionen. Sie verbitten sich Einmischungen "fachfremder" Personen (einschließlich BMWi, Abgeordnete) in ihren Kreis und begegnen diesen durch Ignorieren oder sonstige Diskussionsverhinderungsstrategien. Auch von tausenden von Personen unterzeichnete Briefe an das BMJ-Patentreferat (Dr Welp) blieben bisher unbeantwortet.
Germany and Software Patents: Institutions of the German Patent Movement
Berlin 2001-06-21: Software Patents Hearing in the Federal Parliament: Eight experts from the areas of law, informatics and economics will answer questions from MPs, based on written responses to a set of questions. The interested public is also called to present its answers to any subset of these questions in writing. We publish here the procedings and submissions.


Software Patents > Events > 2004 > Brussels 04/11/09 > Berlin 04-03-10 > Berlin 04-01-28
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