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Deutsch: Einheitspatent heizt Debatte um Software-Patente neuerlich an

The Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) of the European Parliament is preparing these days in view of the discussion on unitary patent on 17 and 18 September 2012. The issue of interest is whether these discussions will bring back the return of software patents as it seems to be the case, having in view the recent patent wars in the US (like that of Apple against Samsung). There is also the threat of letting companies monopolise the market thus preventing innovation and the introduction of new products.

Several groups, like April and FSFE, call for a general mobilisation to contact all MEPs, so that the European Parliament finally tackles the issue of the software patentability.

"Software patents are a real scourge for companies and software developers. They do not contribute to innovation whatsoever, but prevent us from developing new products while exposing us to ever increasing legal uncertainty," stated Gérald Sédrati-Dinet, April's patent advisor.

Although European laws prohibit software patents, the European Patent Office (EPO) has been trying for years to legalize software patents and, under the new proposal to be discussed, the power and control on the law on patentability would be left to an organisation, without any democratic control or the opinion to go before an independent court.

Under the current proposal, the EPO has the right to award a patent, but also takes the final decision on whether it remains valid when someone complains, while the final court to decide on patent complaints should be the European Court of Justice which has already warned that the current proposal is incompatible with EU laws. The patent system should be politically controlled by the European Parliament and should benefit of proper checks and balances.

Ideally, the European Parliament must ensure that computer programs are excluded from patentability, making clear that they cannot be patented just because they run on generic data processing hardware.

I call!
http://call.unitary-patent.eu/campaign/call2/unitary-patent-juri-2012

General mobilisation against the return of software patents in Europe (3.09.2012)
http://www.april.org/en/general-mobilisation-against-return-software-p...

No patents on software: Unitary patent threatens innovation in Europe (7.09.2012)
http://fsfe.org/news/2012/news-20120907-01.en.html

EU: the unitary patent (5.09.2012)
http://fsfe.org/campaigns/swpat/current/unitary-patent.html