World Day Against Software Patents

Am 24. Septmber findet erstmals der „World Day Against Software Patents“ statt. An diesem Tag soll einmal im Jahr der Erfolg in Brüssel im Jahre 2003 gefeiert werden, wo das EU-Parlament in der ersten Lesung gegen Softwarepatente in Europa stimmte und die Pläne stoppte. Dazu gibt es die folgende Petition und es sollen Demonstrationen vor vielen nationalen Patentämter in der ganzen Welt organisiert und durchgeführt werden. Mehr Infos gibt es auf stopsoftwarepatents.org und irgendwann hab ich auch noch ein Video-Interview dazu bearbeitet..

Considering the following:

1. The issue of software patents is a global one, and several governments and patent offices around the world continue to grant software & business method patents on a daily basis; they are pushing for legal codification of the practice, such as currently in New Zealand and India, and via the misappropriation of Free Trade Agreement instruments;
2. Previous initiatives as the Noepatents.org petition (approx. 400 000) at the EU level are outdated (notably on the issues of the central EU patent court) and not open for signatures anymore.
3. Companies still view software patents as assets. They have yet to understand that software patents should also be considered liabilities, especially if they are in the hands of trolls.
4. Time is on our side as litigation gets spread wide: Markets learn the hard way that you may not leave reform to patent professionals. Patent litigation is becoming wide spread in key markets such as the financial sector, and will be more wide spread in the software sector in the forthcoming years due to the number of applications pending;
5. The United States lacks a coalition of business and civil society against software patents

* The lobby gap makes Congress and Senate, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) and the Supreme Court susceptible to lobbying from patent industries, holders and patent professionals. American software creators have been intimidated by the patent establishment and have failed to make themselves heard.
* Companies affected by software patent litigation have been lobbying for reform, but their advocacy for „quality“ and „lower damages“ aims at symptoms rather than the roots of the problem.

For these reasons,

We declare the 24 September as the World Day Against Software Patents, in commemoration of the European Parliament First Reading in 2003 with amendments stopping the harmful patenting of software, guaranteeing that software programmers and businesses can safely benefit from the fruits of their work under copyright law.