Re: [Australia-public-discuss] [Fwd: IP Australia News Update - Review of patentable subject matter available]

[Ciarán O'Riordan]

Ben Sturmfels <address@hidden> writes:
> Happily, even though our web-based petition was outside of the review
> submissions, we got a mention on page 37 (43rd page of PDF):
>
>         A recent petition to the Minister signed by members of the
>         computer software industry argued that patents are not necessary
>         to encourage innovation in their industry, that the term of a
>         patent (20 years) is too long, and that the cost involved (in
>         avoiding infringing patents, and defending against patent
>         lawsuits) is not viable, particularly for small to medium-sized
>         businesses.

That's encouraging.  They correctly summarised the problems, which means the
petition was clear and it got read.

It's also great to have feedback.  For example, it would have been good if
they took note that patents were a "problem", rather than just "not
necessary".  Maybe that's something that should be emphasised in future
communications.

-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan, +32 487 64 17 54, http://ciaran.compsoc.com

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