[sdpd] Software Petents voted at the European Parliament, but...

[Favre-Nicolin Vincent <vincefn...@users.sourceforge.net>]

	In short, software patents have been voted today at the EuParl, but with 
amendments to protect "pure" software. The next stage will be crucial, with 
the review by the Council of Ministers.

------------

   THE VOTE  was (unfortunately) largely in favor of the proposed directive 
(351+:157-,28abs), but with a number of amendments which seriously restrict 
the patents to inventions with a technical contribution, with a strict 
definition of 'technical' : 
>> (amendment 55)
"technical field" means an industrial application domain requiring the use of 
controllable forces of nature to achieve predictable results. "Technical" 
means "belonging to a technical field". The use of forces of nature to 
control physical effects beyond the numerical representation of information 
belongs to a technical domain. The production, handling, distribution and 
presentation of information do not belong to a technical field, even when 
technical devices are employed for such purposes.
<<
  In practice, the above means that the patented invention must be related to 
what any mortal would call a physical effect in the real world, such as a 
program controlling brakes on a car, for example. So (parts of) software such 
as linux, or word processors, should not not patentable. This is a 
significant victory against the worst effects of patents, which was almost 
beyond hope a few weeks ago.

   From the CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC POINT OF VIEW, not all is clear. Certainly 
patents on molecule representation are excluded, but algorithms used in 
structure determination are probably not, since the final aim is to find atom 
positions in the real world (ruled by the 'forces of nature'), and have 
therefore a 'technical contribution' in the sense of the law.
   Of course this final interpretation would depend on the policy of Patent 
Offices and ruling of courts, but their current practice is to interpret 
texts loosely to _extend_ patentability, not the opposite.


  HOWEVER THE BATTLE AGAINST SOFTWARE PATENTS IN EUROPE IS FAR FROM BEING 
OVER. First because the legislation is not clear about the algorithms which 
we use, that are used to obtain information about the real world, and the 
proposed law could still diminish the diversity of contributors which is 
vital for innovation.
   And second, because the European Parliament does not have the last word in 
this legislation, and the European Commission has threatened to bypass the 
European Parliament if too restrictive amendments were adopted.

   The next step will be the review of the text by the Council of Ministers, 
so it is important to lobby national governments so that at least they keep 
the restrictions adopted by the European Parliament. After that, in a few 
months, there should be a 2nd vote at the EuParl. Therefore, write to you 
government representatives and try to have national scientific 
associations/agencies to contact the governments with that purpose.

	Vincent
-- 
Vincent Favre-Nicolin
http://objcryst.sourceforge.net


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