The series of EUPACO conferences was already widely known; see e.g. my earlier posting.
According to the FFII, ESOMA is intended to form a European association representing independent IT firms, professionals, and consumers. They say ESOMA was founded in January 2007 by the FFII. On the ESOMA website, the mission of the organisation is defined as follows:
"[...] Affordable global communications has turned software from a rare substance into an essential commodity. The new challenge is how to do business in this new world. Forward-looking firms build services on top of commodity software. But some firms want software to remain costly. They see commoditisation as an attack on their business model. Today, in Europe, there is a heavy push to apply the patent system to software. A minority of large, powerful software firms sponsor studies, workshops, think tanks, and forums. They lobby politicians. They push industry groups to promote their vision of expensive, proprietary software backed by patents.
So who represents the independent software market? Politicians don't like talking to smaller firms. This means that SMEs who work hard to create innovative small businesses are excluded, ignored, and sidelined in favour of a powerful, rich, and vocal minority.
We are the European Software Market Association
The European Software Market Association (ESOMA) is your new voice.
We are a voice that speaks for the independent software market.
We believe that standardisation is the best way to grow the IT market.
We believe that closed, licensed standards are bad for business.
We believe that the current patent system is unsuited for software. [...]"
At the time being, only three companies are mentioned as ESOMA members:
iMatix Corporation, Brussels, Belgium
Virtua Sistemas Inteligentes, Malaga, Spain
ENTIA, Madrid, Spain
ETHIPAT dwells on aspects of ethics and morality and offers a declaration as follows:
"[...] I, the undersigned, support this statement:
The European patent system discriminates against:
The Public, by letting those who benefit from the patent system set the rules for everyone.
Real innovators, by granting patents too easily and in areas where patents are not needed.
Fast-moving industries, by pretending that one size fits all.
The free market, by granting overbroad monopolies that lock out innovation and competition.
Smaller businesses, by creating risks and costs that small firms cannot afford.
Open research, in software, medicine, and more, by blocking the free flow of ideas and knowledge.
This discrimination is unfair, and it is costly. We all pay for it, with higher prices, fewer jobs, and less freedom.
I call on the EU to build a new patent system on these principles:
Fair to the public. It must be made by elected lawmakers of democratic European Union.
Fair to innovators. It must allow patents only where needed to spur innovation.
Fair to all industries. It must adapt to the fast-growing diversity of technology and business.
Fair to a free market. It must ensure that patent monopolies are narrowly focused.
Fair to small businesses. It must provide affordable, fast, narrow and predictable rights.
Fair to open research. It must protect the independent creation of original works. [...]"
It appears as if FFII intends to create a new political project, covering three areas of interest:
A "Think-Tank" unit implemented by EUPACO;
An ESOMA organisation targeting SME businesses (in competition with established organisations in this field like BITCOM or EICTA); and
An ETHIPAT campaign mainly targeting individuals as an offer for continuing involvement to those activists who had been actively fighting against the Draft Directive on patentability of CIIs (perhaps something like a broadened re-vival of the former Eurolinux Petition for a Software Patent Free Europe).
The statements as presented on the three websites mentioned all appear to be a bit vague. This might be understood as a necessary prerequisite to gather as much crowd as possible, even at the expense of drawing targeted criticism from ant-patent extremists. We will have to wait and see which kind of political demands will emerge from this structure later on. I do not expect that such things like epomustgo.org are gone now.
[UPDATE 2007-02-26] A video of Mr. Pieter Hintjens' speech is available here (caution - some 182 MB!) It is an .ogg file that can be played, at a push, by means of a Real player if you shouldn't have at hand some matching free software.
Feel free to contact PA Axel H Horns via e-mail
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Dipl.-Phys. Axel H Horns is Patentanwalt (German Patent Attorney),
European Patent Attorney as well as European Trade Mark Attorney. In particular, he is Member of:
a report concerning a talk of 
to influence IP policy by means of a threefold strategy:
