[Linux-aus] PriceWaterhouseCoopers formally identifies swpats as threat to Europe

[Arjen Lentz <arjen@mysql.com>]

PwC: software patents threat to Europe
By Lucy Sherriff
Published Wednesday 15th September 2004 10:32 GMT

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/15/pwc_swpat_are_a_threat/

Services and accountancy firm Price Waterhouse Coopers has formally
identified software patenting as a threat to the growth and success of ICT
in Europe.

In a report prepared this summer for the Dutch EU presidency, PwC lists ten
ICT breakthroughs it says are needed to resume the pace of growth Europe
experienced during the IT boom. Under the fifth, entitled "Go for global
platform leadership in the ICT industry", the report states that the
"current discussion on the patent on software" represents a "particular
threat" to the European ICT industry.

In a preface, Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, Minister of Economic Affairs in the
Netherlands, says that the aim of the document is to present "a list of
breakthroughs that we may need to achieve our Lisbon-goals".

He argues that Europe, particularly a post-dot-com-crash Europe, with ten
new member states, needs to re-evaluate how best to meet its own targets for
economic, social and environmental renewal, set out in Lisbon, in 2000.

This is what it has to say about software patenting:

The mild regime of IP protection in the past has led to a very innovative
and competitive software industry with low entry barriers. A software
patent, which serves to protect inventions of a non-technical nature, could
kill the high innovation rate. However, opinions on software patent in its
current proposed form vary a lot. Many large companies operating on a global
scale, including European ones, seem to be in favour of a software patenting
regime. But most small enterprises are strongly opposed. 

Only very few European companies have prepared themselves for the
consequences of a software patent regime. It raises the question how the
introduction of the European software patent interacts with a European
strategy based on widespread use of ICT's.

The authors have chosen their words carefully, and in doing so, have got
straight to the really messy parts of the whole debate: what exactly
constitutes a technical effect; and who will really benefit from the
directive becoming law.

The report, entitled Rethinking the European ICT Agenda: Ten
ICT-breakthroughs for reaching Lisbon goals is posted on the anti-software
patenting campaigners, FFII.org's website. (Foundation for a Free
Information Infrastructure).

[see original article for lots of links/referenes]


-- 
Arjen Lentz
MySQL AB, www.mysql.com

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