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Friday, March 03, 2006

Mr. Müller Can't Stop Campaigning.

Mr. Florian Müller, founder of

nosoftwarepatents.com, officially has

retreated from the anti-patent campaigning business. However, we now

learn that he is preparing a reply to

the commission's consultation paper "on behalf of a group of European businesses led by Europe's largest internet hosting company".

What "Europe's largest internet hosting company"? Well, I would guess it is

United Internet. They also appear to have

sponsored nosoftwarepatents.com.

Many companies utilise the patent system in the context of their business model. Even if they use or rely on OSS. Some companies, however, seem to have taken a business decision to lobby against the patent system. It seems not to be very well understood in which ways companies with software-related product portfolios interact with the patent system. I think it clearly is not a dichotomy of a black-and-white model. IBM, on the one hand, is the best example for an OSS comapny embracing the patent system whereas United Internet, on the other hand, seems to represent the other end of the scale.

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You guessed right as far as the largest Internet hosting company is concerned.

More information on my activities in connection with the EU Commission's consultation on patent policy will soon appear in my own blog.

# posted by Florian Mueller : 06 March, 2006 06:57