[Fsfe-uk] European Patents Once More

[Rob Myers]

Via Groklaw:

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemlongdetail.cfm?item_id=2539&tpa_id=146&lang=en

"[PJ: Uh oh. Is this moving toward an EU-wide patent system? Do they
understand the GPL? The FOSS development model? Note Towards an
increased contribution from standardisation to innovation in Europe
[http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2008:0133:FIN:EN:PDF],
page 10, "Communication from the Commission to the Council, the EU
Parliament and the EU Economic and Social Committee": "(7)Both
intellectual property rights (IPRs) and standardisation encourage
innovation and facilitate the dissemination of technology. However, as
they contribute to these common objectives by different means, due
regard needs to be paid to the interrelation between IPR and
standarisation.

"The Commission encourages the ESOs to continue their efforts to make
the FRAND [fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory] policy effective
and to develop mechanisms to prevent abuses of the standard-setting
process. The Commission will launch a fact-finding study to analyse
the interplay of IPR and standards."]"