FFII on Rocard's Software Patents Report

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Patents] FFII comments on rapporteur Rocard's software
patents report
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 11:46:10 +0200
From: Jonas Maebe <[email protected]>
To: Liste de diffusion Aful - Patents <[email protected]>

PRESS RELEASE FFII -- [ Europe / economy / ICT ]

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FFII comments on rapporteur Rocard's software patents report
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Brussels, 28 April 2005 -- The FFII warmly welcomes the report of
Michel Rocard MEP following its discussion by the European
Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) last week. The
Parliament's rapporteur for the software patent directive has
delivered a text which is notable for its clarity and explains
this complex issue in an enlightening way.

The report, titled "Working document on the patentability of
computer-controlled inventions", presents the basic problem:
should software be patentable? If not, then how do we define a
clear limit which would exclude software from patentability while
devices controlled or assisted by software means would still be
patentable?

The FFII strongly supports the approach of defining this boundary
between patentable and non-patentable subject matter by means of
using controllable forces of nature. That expression is mentioned
at least ten times in the current examination guidelines of the
German Patent Office. Rocket scientists and high-energy
astronomers at NASA use the term. It is entrenched in German case
law and codified in Japanese patent law.

The forces of nature doctrine ensures that judges and policy
makers keep their ability to limit patentability if this is
deemed to be in the interest of innovation and the economy as a
whole. At the same time it guarantees patentability for
inventions which require expensive empirical experimentation and
allows for a grey zone for innovations straddling the abstract
and physical worlds.

Additionally, excluding data processing from being a field of
technology ensures TRIPs compliance and provides another
safeguard to prevent pure logic innovations from becoming
patentable. At the same time, this does not mean that innovative
devices used for dataprocessing, nor e.g. automated looms,
automatically become unpatentable.

The flexibility of both approaches stands in stark contrast to
the Council text which will open up virtually any innovation to
patentability, as long as a computer is mentioned somewhere in
the patent claims. Keeping all options open is not an extreme
position, but abolishing all safeguards is.

Hartmut Pilch, President of the FFII, concludes

   Rocard's outline contains all the necessary ingredients
   for a directive that achieves what most member state
   governments say they want to achieve: to exclude
   computer programs from patentability while allowing
   computer-controlled technical inventions to be patented.

   Perhaps Rocard is showing here the same qualities that
   won him fame as the peacemaker of New Caledonia. If the
   MEPs can vote for Michel Rocard's amendments in June and
   July, the Parliament will then, in the ensuing
   Conciliation procedure, be able to negotiate with the
   Council from a position of strength.

JURI will take its final decision on June 20th, followed by the
Parliament's plenary vote around 6 July.

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Background Information
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* Rocard's report
     http://wiki.ffii.org/Rocard050413En

* UEAPME, which represents 11 million European SMEs, supports
Rocard's report
      
> http://www.ueapme.org/docs/press_releases/pr_2005/050427_CIIcampaign.pdf

* Analysis of several sample patents and how they would or would
not be affected by the proposed definitions
     http://swpat.ffii.org/log/05/eictasme04/#pikta

* Permanent link to this press release
     http://wiki.ffii.org/RocardPr050428En

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Contact
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Hartmut Pilch and Holger Blasum (Munich Office)
info at ffii org
tel. 0049-89-18979927

Jonas Maebe
jmaebe at ffii org
tel. 0032-485-369645

Erik Josefsson (Brussels Office)
erjos at ffii org
tel. 0032-2-7396262

Dieter Van Uytvanck:
dieter at vrijschrift.org
tel. 0031-6-275-87910

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About FFII -- http://www.ffii.org
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The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is a
non-profit association registered in several European countries,
which is dedicated to the spread of data processing literacy. The
FFII supports the development of public information goods based
on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 500
members, 1,400 companies and 80,000 supporters have entrusted the
FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning
exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data processing.  The
FFII maintains offices in Munich and Brussels and national
supporter groups in most European countries.