Free Patents

Adapt Software Patents

Some people think that software patents may be OK but that the US Patent Law should be adapted. 

Bruce Alberts : "IP stops progress in science"

In an interview published by "La Lettre de l'Académie des Sciences et du Cadas", Bruce Alberts, President of the US National Academy of Sciences explains that strict IP enforcement in the research area stops science and slows down innovation.

The same arguments apply to open source software. The development process of open source software is similar to the scientific research process. Because in many countries (such as Japan), patents are not enforceable in the research area, we believe that software patents should not be enforceable to open source projects. Eventually, software patents may be enforceable on end-user products deriving from open source projects.

First French (virtual) Internet Law : "Patents on Internet standards should be free or banned"

The French Senate organized last weekend a virtual debate and voted a virtual law on Internet. The final version of Article 4 of this law states that "Internet standards should belong to the public domain" and that "patents on Internet standards should be free". It was presented by Daniel Duthil. Patent issues were presented bu Jean-Paul Smets. Open Standards issues were presented by Roberto Di Cosmo.

Senator Laffitte : "Governments should not use patented standards to exchange information with citizens"

French Senator Laffitte, stated that "governments should not use patented standards to exchange information with citizens" since that would contradict the principle of free access to the public information defined by the French Law. Moreover, governments should only use software provided with some kind of source code access in order to protect public data. more…

Michael Widenius (MySQL): "Software patents are more harmful that useful"

Michael Widenius, Moderator of MySQL, the award winning and leading Web database by TCX (Sweden), thinks that software patents makes problems for the whole software industry and only the companies that already have a lot of money can afford to go on! 

ISOC France

During the ISOC Meeting in Autrans (France), participants approved a formal resolution stating that the European Law should not accept patents on software unless it is proved that patents do efficiently protect innovation, competition and free software. 

Please help us to improve this web site by sending comments and suggestions.

.