[Fsfe-uk] Re: [Free-sklyarov-uk] FFII-UK update (software patents)

[James Heald]

Philip Hunt wrote:
> On Saturday 15 November 2003  4:51 pm, James Heald wrote:
>
> > The Coreper decision on how to proceed with the Directive is expected
> > any day now.  We really need to get the message over to MPs this
> > weekend, if we are to stop a stitch-up on November 27.
>
>
> My understanding from 
> <http://swpat.ffii.org/news/recent/index.en.html#coreper031120>
> is that the Nov 27 meeting won't discuss the Software Patent 
> Directive, and consequently the whole thing will have to wait for
> the next parliament, to be elected next year.
>
> I'm not sure how to interprete this.
>
> Either it's because the proponents of swpat realise that public 
> sentiment on the issue is too strong for them to get their way, 
> and they are waiting for lots of new MEPs to be elected, who don't 
> know anything about this, so they can easily bamboozle them.
>
> Or its because national govmts are beginning to thing again about
> the issue, as they start to reaslise the original Directive was
> seriously flawed. (Well, I can hope, can't I?)

For what it's worth, the Patent Office are very keen to deny that they 
have had any instructions from ministers at all on the subject of the 
timetable for the directive.

So why it was delayed... who knows?

The official position hasn't changed -- the latest replies coming back 
from Lord Sainsbury are pretty much word-for-word what was being written 
two months ago.

Beneath the surface, again, who knows?

It's possible the Patent Office may be reacting to a change of 
temperature, reflected in our letters, MP interest, and also the FTC 
report...

It's possible that there was a tactical calculation that the Parliament 
vote gave software patent opponents too much momentum, so it was better 
to put the issue on ice for six months in public, while lobbyists go to 
work behind the scenes in private to try to shore up the pro-patent 
position...

Or it's possible that having rejected the November 2002 text, it was 
just considered that it would have been too expensive of everybody's 
political capital to try to force through a new deal against such a 
tight deadline...

The important thing is not to be lulled into a false sense of security.

Ministers are not yet convinced; they still appear to think software 
patenting is a good thing, and that it is an important part of the 
high-tech "gap" between Europe and the USA in the patent statistics.
If we are going to change that, there is no time to lose.  We need to 
start *now*, working on every avenue we can open up, to try to get them 
to change their minds.

All best,

   James.