Danish Referendum on the Unified Patent Court

[Carsten Agger]

There is to be a referendum in Denmark on the Unified Patent Court,
which will be a single patent authority for European countries (I
believe some non-EU countries participate, while Italy and Spain have
declined)

http://www.euractiv.com/eu-elections-2014/danish-government-confirms-eu-re-news-532513



The Danish free software/digital rights community as embodied e.g. in
It-Politisk Forening (http://www.itpol.dk, IT-Political Association of
Denmark) of which I am a member, is recommending a NO to the UPC.

This is because while software patents are (I believe) not allowed in
European patents, the European-level courts have adopted a far more
permissive stance than our local patent office, which means that
accepting the UPC will result in many more software patents being
enforceable in Denmark.

All political parties support the UPC and favour a YES at the
referendum, except the far-right Danish People's Party (DPP) and the
left-wing Enhedslisten (EL).

Whereas DPP oppose the UPC on grounds of national sovereignty, EL have
argued against giving large corporation an uncontrollable (by us in
Denmark, or people outside the EU bureacracy) monopoly on ideas to
large corporations. Interestingly, they have explicitly mentioned the
threat from software patents currently acknowledged on the European
level but not by our local system.

I've been invited to a meeting next Monday, and I think I will ad the
support of our local FSFE group on the "NO" side. The reasoning is,
once again: We do not want any software patents, and we believe this
unified patents may easily become a means for introducing software
patents on the European level.

On the other hand, a Danish "NO" might be a good starting for a
general campaign for a complete ban on software patents on the
European level.

I don't think I have links to a good analysis in English, but people
might try Google translating this one:
http://www.itpol.dk/notater/enhedspatent-og-softwarepatenter-erhvervsudvalg-jan13

[Carsten Agger]

PS:

This, of course, is the original illustration of what might go wrong
with the Unified Patent:

http://webshop.ffii.org/

Post by Carsten Agger
There is to be a referendum in Denmark on the Unified Patent
Court, which will be a single patent authority for European
countries (I believe some non-EU countries participate, while Italy
and Spain have declined)
http://www.euractiv.com/eu-elections-2014/danish-government-confirms-eu-re-news-532513
The Danish free software/digital rights community as embodied e.g.
in It-Politisk Forening (http://www.itpol.dk, IT-Political
Association of Denmark) of which I am a member, is recommending a
NO to the UPC.
This is because while software patents are (I believe) not allowed
in European patents, the European-level courts have adopted a far
more permissive stance than our local patent office, which means
that accepting the UPC will result in many more software patents
being enforceable in Denmark.
All political parties support the UPC and favour a YES at the
referendum, except the far-right Danish People's Party (DPP) and
the left-wing Enhedslisten (EL).
Whereas DPP oppose the UPC on grounds of national sovereignty, EL
have argued against giving large corporation an uncontrollable (by
us in Denmark, or people outside the EU bureacracy) monopoly on
ideas to large corporations. Interestingly, they have explicitly
mentioned the threat from software patents currently acknowledged
on the European level but not by our local system.
I've been invited to a meeting next Monday, and I think I will ad
the support of our local FSFE group on the "NO" side. The reasoning
is, once again: We do not want any software patents, and we believe
this unified patents may easily become a means for introducing
software patents on the European level.
On the other hand, a Danish "NO" might be a good starting for a
general campaign for a complete ban on software patents on the
European level.
I don't think I have links to a good analysis in English, but
http://www.itpol.dk/notater/enhedspatent-og-softwarepatenter-erhvervsudvalg-jan13

[Matthias Kirschner]

hi Carsten,

Post by Carsten Agger
I've been invited to a meeting next Monday, and I think I will ad the
support of our local FSFE group on the "NO" side. The reasoning is,
once again: We do not want any software patents, and we believe this
unified patents may easily become a means for introducing software
patents on the European level.

I am sorry I am late on this. How did it go?

For the follow-up it might help you to read
https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130612-01.en.html and the linked
documents. As you can read German also
<http://www.bundestag.de/bundestag/ausschuesse17/a06/anhoerungen/archiv/47_Patentierung_von_Computerprogrammen/04_Stellungnahmen/Stellungnahme_Kirschner.pdf>
our written statement to the German Parliament.

Some other background on the German situation is available in my blog
entry https://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/fsfe-meeting-the-fsf-crew-in-boston-2/
(I have no clue why the URL is so strange, I converted from the short
numbers to longer links some time ago).

Best Regards,
Matthias

[Carsten Agger]

Post by Matthias Kirschner
hi Carsten,

Post by Carsten Agger
I've been invited to a meeting next Monday, and I think I will ad
the support of our local FSFE group on the "NO" side. The
reasoning is, once again: We do not want any software patents,
and we believe this unified patents may easily become a means for
introducing software patents on the European level.

I am sorry I am late on this. How did it go?

It went fine!

The Danish IT-worker's union PROSA are very keen on getting a "no",
because they're convinced that adopting the Unified Patent Court
without a clear ban on software patents means that software patents
*will* be enforceable throughout the EU, or at least that that's a
very serious risk.

Therefore, they wish to launch a "no" campaign that builds on the
threat of software patents and support to and solidarity with SMEs.

It's sort of a first that software patents becomes a prime issue in
national politics. It's also kind of bewildering to the "yes" side who
hadn't expected this.

So I think the campaign and the ideas behind it look promising.

The referendum doesn't look very promising, though. For the patent
court to be rejected, 30% of those eligible to vote most vote "no" - a
simple majority is not enough. That's very difficult for a technical
issue like this one.

That

Post by Matthias Kirschner
For the follow-up it might help you to read
https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130612-01.en.html and the linked
documents. As you can read German also
<http://www.bundestag.de/bundestag/ausschuesse17/a06/anhoerungen/archiv/47_Patentierung_von_Computerprogrammen/04_Stellungnahmen/Stellungnahme_Kirschner.pdf>

our written statement to the German Parliament.

Post by Matthias Kirschner
Some other background on the German situation is available in my
blog entry
https://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/fsfe-meeting-the-fsf-crew-in-boston-2/ (I
have no clue why the URL is so strange, I converted from the short
numbers to longer links some time ago).

Thanks for the links, I'm looking at them now. :-)

[Carsten Agger]

Post by Matthias Kirschner
For the follow-up it might help you to read
https://fsfe.org/news/2013/news-20130612-01.en.html and the linked
documents. As you can read German also
<http://www.bundestag.de/bundestag/ausschuesse17/a06/anhoerungen/archiv/47_Patentierung_von_Computerprogrammen/04_Stellungnahmen/Stellungnahme_Kirschner.pdf>

our written statement to the German Parliament.
Thanks again for the input!

Here's a thought, though: Might the German Parliament's motion against
software patents be rendered irrelevant by the Unified Patent Court
and the European Patent?

If patents are awarded on the European level, and the UPC becomes the
highest instance for the enforcement of patents - and it ends up
following the current European Patent practise (see
http://webshop.ffii.org/) then it won't be possible to prevent the
enforcement of software patents on the national level.

That's the theory, at least. And the European Parliament has not voted
to prevent software patents in the European Patent. That's why we're
against ratified the UPC.

[Matthias Kirschner]

Hi Carsten,

thanks for the summary. You should continue to try to get a "no". In
Germany this joint motion is one step towards finding a solution to get
rid of software patents in Europe. So it is good that the political
parties are against software patents, but now they have to do something
to change the problems in reality, which also means influencing the
situation in Europe.

Best Regards,
Matthias