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BLOG@IP::JURPatent Attorney Axel H Horns' Blog on Intellectual Property Law.
Friday, January 09, 2004epoline-eOLF is Open Source Software but not under the GNU license.Today I have spent several hours with resaerching and installing the epoline electronic on-line filing software eOLF created and distributed by the European Patent Office. When browsing the epoline website I stumbled over a note saying that eOLF is available including the source code at www.sourceforge.net:
"To support the objective of offering customers the option to 'draft once, file anywhere' (a global standard for e-filing) and to provide a sound basis for harmonisation and interoperability of online filing systems, the epoline Online Filing software has been made available on www.sourceforge.net. Users are thereby guaranteed software continuity, independence and security, since the software is completely open. To ensure international uniformity and harmonisation, the EPO will form a release board with other interested parties as the USPTO and WIPO. " Sounds interesting. I decided to visit sourceforge to inspect some source code files, and after downloading a self-extracting archive file (running, of course, only under MS-Windows!) I got a popup window dispaying a certain  License saying:
"[...] Each User grants to the other Users a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license under its copyrights or patents as far as these rights relate to Program or Modified Program or the Modifications as such or the use of these, to copy, use, distribute the Program or Modified Program, and to distribute and sell Own Software incorporating the Program or Modified Program therein. Each User may distribute and/or sell the Program or Modified Program as they see fit as long as a reference is made to the Open Source Library. In each distribution or commercial or public use of the Program or Modified Program the User shall specifically point out that he is acting strictly on his own behalf and not on behalf of the EPO or any other governmental or intergovernmental organisation. [...]" Moreover, there is a more detailed description of that "Release Board": "[...] a. The EPO, together with other interested parties, will form a Release Board in order to ensure the international uniformity and harmonisation in this area to the largest extent feasible. b. The standing members of the Release Board shall be representatives from the EPO, USPTO, JPO, and WIPO. c. Membership of the Release Board will be open to all those persons, commercial companies or entities who can make substantial contributions in terms of time, technology, knowledge, or industry expertise to the Program and who share in the vision to create an open platform for Online Filing of Intellectual Property Documents built by an open community of tool providers, operating under an open source model, with a license that grants royalty free and world wide re-distribution rights in the Program and its Modifications. To be a Member, the person, company or entity must complete a written membership application in such form as shall be adopted by the Release Board. The nomination and content of the membership application must be included in a notice submitted to the open Source Library, at least ten (10) days prior to any vote on the applicant's admission, which notice may be by electronic means. Members are approved for admission or removal by a 75% majority of all existing Board Members. Membership shall only become effective once the applicant has executed the Membership Agreement in such form as shall be adopted by the Board. d. The Release Board shall assess all modifications for their compliance with the International Standards including Annex F of the PCT Administrative Instructions Part 7 and those agreed by at least 75% of the Standing Members of the Release Board will at its sole discretion be incorporated by the Release Board into a new Certified Release. This Certified Release will then also be made available under this licence via the Open Source Library along side any other software versions submitted by interested parties. The Release Board will review modifications to ensure their consistency with good programming practice and for any security ramifications. [...]" This gives a rather illustrative insight into the objects aimed at by the EPA concerning this publication of the epoline-eOLF source code. A very brief inspection of some of the source code files makes me think that most parts of the software are coded in Pascal or some more object-oriented dialect thereof. Strange enough that fact but, moreover, I have seen virtually no comments spread over the active lines of code. Have they been removed deliberately before giving the files to sourceforge or have there been no comments at all? The sourceforge project area looks rather defunct but the latest files are of December 2003. Hence, it looks as if the epoline team have just dumped the latest versions of the source files on sourceforge but the real development work is done within the EPO and behind closed doors.
At the time being I have no clue whether or not the eOLF source code is really fairly platform independent. When browsing some of the source files I spotted identifiers having strings like "AxtiveX" in their names, and I am somewhat in doubt that the program can ever be made run under any other operating system than MS-Windows. The crucial point of having free access to the sources of eOLF might, at least theoretically, be to enable exploitation of the software not only for electronic filings with some Patent Offices but also for the electronic exchange of work between applicants and their representatives as well as between representatives in different jurisdictions on the basis of some open XML-based standard to be worked out in future. However, the quite uncommon programming language as well as the other particular facts surrounding the sourceforge eOLF project make me somwehat sceptical that such idea might ever flourish. It might well be that the sourceforge platform is only means to a particular end, namely the co-opartation of the EPO with other Patent and Trade Mark Offices as well as with a few major vendors of mainstream case management systems running under MS-Windows.
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