patents

GPLv3 report II

Eben Moglen began his presentation by putting recent news in new perspective. He spoke of the retirement of Bill Gates in a way that I found intriguing.
When a CEO states that he resigns there is a period of calming the market. Therefore when Gates says he will step down in two years this should not be seen as a long time. Two years it is the minimum timeframe that will not spook the market. The important issue is that the resignation comes 6 months from the shipping the most important product in 10 years.

Also we can put this into another perspective the FSF is on schedule with the most important product in 15 years. The update of to the GPLv3. The process going to version three is open and public. Philosophically it reflects the rule-making process put forward by Habermas where the idea is that those affected by the rules should be part of the decision making process.

When discussing the substantial changes Eben explain why the GPLv3 has been adapted to meet the needs of issues such as distribution via torrents, the developments within patents and the increase in DRM.

On the latter he explained that companies feel that they should be allowed to have rights (digital) and want to protect them. Many of these feel that RMS is attempting to change their vocabulary (from Rights to Restrictions). But this is not about attempting to use a software license to address non-software problems. The license (and its implementation) is about the software and the four freedoms. DRM is about the attempt to prevent users from practicing the 4 freedoms.

In closing before an extended Q&A session Eben returned to the issue of Microsoft. The falling revenues and the stepping down of Bill Gates will have the effect that one of strongest voices against Free Software will be silenced (almost). In the future arguing for Free Software will therefore not meet the strong resistance it is accustomed to.

Posted on by mklang

GPLv3 Conference

On the 22nd & 23rd June its the 3rd International GPLv3 Conference which will be held in Barcelona.

The focus will be on the GPLv3 – this is from the press release

The goal of the GPL is to ensure that recipients of GPL covered software are free to examine it, to modify it, to pass on copies, and to distribute modifications. Version two of the GPL was released fifteen years ago, in 1991. The new version is being drafted to account for changes in the legal and technical environment in which software licences operate.

The main changes in version three are to minimise the harm of software patents, to prevent Digital Restrictions Management from being used against software users, and to make the licence compatible with certain classes of other Free Software licences.

Speakers will include, amongst others, Richard Stallman and Eben Moglen.

Posted on by mklang

Another strange patent

There are too many stupid patents to put on this blog without turning it into blog specialising in stupid patents. If you want such a blog then read Intellectual Property Humor. But still I could not resist posting this patent.

Here is the patent abstract:

Pants convertible into a hammock comprise a pair of pant legs separable by unfastening front and back fasteners extending from the waist to crotch of the pant legs, each pant leg openable to a flat formation by unfastening an inseam fastener, the opened pant legs convertible into a hammock configuration by abutting and fastening together bottom edges of the pant legs, wherein the hammock pants may be suspended from an adjacent structure by inserting a pair of rigid rods into sleeves provided at the waist portion of the pant legs in the hammock configuration, and by unfolding a plurality of straps attached to the inside surfaces of the pant legs and extending the straps from the ends of the rigid rods to anchor points on the adjacent structure.

I mean wow! What can you say about patent nr 6,698,029? If things like this dont prove patent law is totally messed up then I dont know what does.

Posted on by mklang

Prison over patents? – International Herald Tribune

For once, declared adversaries are on the same side of an argument in the technology industry: They are urging European lawmakers to drop legislation that would impose prison time on patent violators, which they say would stifle innovation across Europe.

Heavyweights like Nokia and Microsoft on one hand, and the grass-roots Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure on the other, are making common cause against wide-ranging legislation proposed by the European Commission that would criminalize all intellectual property infringements, including patent violations. The law would provide blanket protection to all forms of intellectual property across the 25 countries of the Union.

Prison over patents? Proposed EU law unites foes – International Herald Tribune, 9 Dec

Posted on by mklang

The patent myth

An important myth in our society is: Inventors make important stuff, Important stuff is patented and Patents equal money. Through Slashdot I came across this article in USA today

“Search for the most prolific inventors is a patent struggle Tuesday December 6, 8:44 pm ET

What living person holds the most U.S. patents? In this era of information and lightning searches – when patents are both more valuable than ever and a source of raging controversy – you’d think such a simple question would be easy to answer.”

The thing is what is it the most prolific US inventor was doing? Apparently floral related patents.

“Weder…has his name on 1,321 patents. Almost all have to do with items you’d find at a florist. Weder’s most recent patent – No. 6,962,021, granted Nov. 8 – is for a sleeve for holding a group of flowers. Before that, on Oct. 11, Weder was issued a patent titled, “Method of covering a flower pot.” On Sept. 20, he was issued a patent titled, “Method of covering a flower pot or floral grouping.””

While I am sure tha this is important stuff in Mr Weder’s business is it really the stuff that patent mythology should be about? Another example among the top patent holders was Mr Yamazaki

“…the USPTO database turns up 1,432 patents bearing his name, whupping both Edison and Weder. Yamazaki’s most recent patent, granted Nov. 22, was titled, “Reflective liquid crystal display panel and device using same.” His first patent, for a computer chip design, was granted in 1980. Yamazaki has averaged about a patent a week for 25 years.”

Can it be possible to invent something worth patenting every week for 25 years? The ideal of the patent as the icon of the industrial age seems to have moved along to another dimension…

Ok so I am not sure what this means. But it just seems strange. Not wrong, but strange. That patents are granted so readily. In the case of the floral patents – do all these patents really qualify as inventions? In the case of Mr Yamazaki, does an patentable increase of knowledge in society occur every week? For 25 years? Either we should interprete this to mean that the rest of us are bone idle, totally intellectually worthless or both. Or people like Mr Yamzaki and Mr Weder are their fields equivalents of Mozart.

Posted on by mklang

No Software Patents

The European Parliament has finally rejected the proposed directive on software patents. The vote was an overwhelming 648 votes to 14 (with 18 abstentions) against the proposal.

Responding to the rejection the European Commission said it would not draw up or submit any more versions of the original proposal.

Posted on by mklang

EU takes axe to software patents directive | The Register

The European parliament has renewed it opposition to the software patents directive, by making substantial alterations to the draft.

The Financial Times says it has seen a copy of the amended directive, penned by the bill’s rapporteur, Michel Rocard. Under the terms of Rocard’s draft, software would only be patentable if it controlled a physical process, or a controllable force of nature. Patents would not be allowed for software that handles “the treatment, the manipulation, the representation and the presentation of information”.

EU takes axe to software patents directive | The Register

Posted on by mklang

Victory for democratic influence on software patents

The Danish Parliament (by the EU Committee) has decided to change the mandate of the Danish government to ensure that on the next meeting in the EU Council the software patent directive will be discussed as a B-item instead of passing as an A-item without any discussion.

Other parliaments have passed resolutions opposing the software patent directive. But Denmark is the first country to call for a B-item and thereby reopening the discussion. If just The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, and Spain backs the Danish request, there will not be a qualified majority in favor of passing the directive without discussion.

“This is a victory for the democratic process in the European Union. Both in Denmark and the rest of Europe there have been a tremendous interest in this issue.- IT-Political Association is ecstatic now that there is a very good chance that the all the citizens in Europe will have a chance to participate in the discussion of the directive,” Ole Tange, board member in IT-Political Association says. “We do not view this as a failure for the proponents of the directive; if their arguments are valid they would still have been valid after a democratic discussion. Though so far we have not seen valid arguments.”

Niels Elgaard Larsen, Anne Østergaard, and Ole Tange from IT-pol.dk spoke to the EU Committee in Folketinget.dk as part of a delegation also counting Peter Ussing from PROSA.dk and Peter Mogensen from
Digitalforbruger.dk

Posted on by mklang

Software patents: EU votes for restart

The European Parliament’s committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a restart of the whole legislative process of the controversial directive on computer implemented inventions. The result of the vote is a huge boost to anti-patent campaigners, who are concerned that the directive would allow patents to be granted on pure software inventions, as they are in the US.

Software patents: EU votes for restart | The Register

Posted on by mklang

Software patents: EU votes for restart

The European Parliament’s committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a restart of the whole legislative process of the controversial directive on computer implemented inventions. The result of the vote is a huge boost to anti-patent campaigners, who are concerned that the directive would allow patents to be granted on pure software inventions, as they are in the US.

The Register
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/03/software_patent_restart/

Posted on by mklang