Title: New patent wars in Europe

Author: Alan Lenton

Date: 18 July 2006 05:36:53 +01:00 or Tue, 18 July 2006 05:36:53 +01:00

Summary: New proposals for a European Patent Court have engendered a new campaign against US style patents in Europe.

Body: Over here in Europe the war over software patents is about to break out anew. Last year the European Parliament threw out an attempt to make patents more like the US system, which everyone admits is badly broken. Now the EU internal market commissioner McCreevy is trying a new route - by establishing a new European Patent Court. This attempt at an end run round the European Parliament hasn't gone unnoticed by his opponents, and, amid cries of 'foul', a campaign is being organised against the idea.

I will report on this in more detail as information becomes available, but in the meantime I'm reminded of a discussion I once had with a very experienced local politician. "Once the government bureaucrats decide to do something it never dies," he told me. "When you defeat them they merely stick the plans into a filing cabinet until there is a change of administration. Then they bring the plans back out, dust them off, make a few cosmetic changes, and try to get them through again."

He was talking about a proposal to drive a six lane highway through the middle of a residential area, but over the years I've discovered that this observation applies to virtually everything which touches transnational, national and local bureaucracies...

http://lwn.net/Articles/191287 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/11/patent_litigation_treaty/

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