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Tuesday, October 17, 2006

German "Pirate Party" Demanding "General Overhaul" of the Patent System.

The

German Piratenpartei have eventually distilled

their political intentions:

"[...] Das heutige Patentsystem stammt aus einer Zeit industriell geprägter Wirtschaftssysteme. Es geht von langen Innovationszeiten und Erfindungen als Insellösungen aus. Dies ist das Gegenteil der Realität moderner Innovation. Patente werden missbraucht, um ganze Märkte von Konkurrenten zu befreien. Es gibt Patente auf Pflanzen, Gene, Geschäftsideen und triviale Algorithmen. Patentrechtsklagen sind für mittelständische Firmen oft nicht bezahlbar und stellen für diese ein Existenzrisiko dar - suma summarum: das Patentsystem muss sich einer Generalüberholung unterziehen. Diese werden wir mit dem Augenmaß, dass Patente zum Zwecke des Innovationsanreizes geschaffen wurden, durchführen. [...]"

I would like to offer my own English translation as follows:

"[...] Today's patent system has its seeds in a time of an industrially shaped economic system. It is based on long innovation cycles and inventions as isolated applications. This is the opposite of the reality of modern innovation. Patents are misused to remove competitors from entire markets. There are patents on plants, genes, business ideas, and trivial algorithms. Patent lawsuits are often not affordable for SMEs but form existence-threatening risks - in all: the patent system needs to undergo a general overhaul. We shall accomplish this with a sense of proportion taking into account that patents have been created for fostering innovation. [...]"

Obviously they seem to feel that the framework of today's inventions is completely different from that of the world decades ago. But where is the beef? What exactly do they want to say us with such assertions like that in former times inventions have been "isolated applications"? Ok, in the ICT scene, networks might thought to be everything but even today in many fields of technology there are a lot of inventions which do not rely on any network effects. And the clause demanding an "entire overhaul" is extremely vague. However, at least it looks as if anti-patent activists like Mr. Pilch did not succeed to convince the Piratenpartei to demand

a complete abolishment of the patent system.

The

recent failure of the Swedish branch of the international Pirate Party movement, a patent abolitionist group, should not be allowed to lull the users of the patent system into a false sense of political calmness. Patent politics at large is now a long-term business. We need to think in decades. Mr. Axel Pfeiffer, a Patent Attorney in Germany, writes in his article titled "Hard Times For Patents In Europe?", printed in les Nouvelles September 2006, pages 193 to 200, published by

LES:

"[...] What can patent opponents substantially do these days? To make a long story short, a great deal. National law revisions are due in some European countries. Maybe someone wants to further the Community Patent. EU legislation with more or less ancillary relevance for intellectual property is on its way. All these activities are playgrounds inviting anti-patent activities. [...]

It is the author's opinion that presently no immediate action on the political front is required. But everybody having an interest in the issue should critically watch the situation. Basically, one can say that the patent community has overslept on the CII issue. When they finally got started, the opponents had advantage of several years. This shouldn't happen a second time. [...]"

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