Author: JT Smith
of
Internet startup companies, EuroLinux and VoV — the Internet section
of
the German social democrat party, will organise on July 5th at
LinuxTag in
Stuttgart a seminar to study the concept of the technical invention
in the
European patent system. http://swpat.ffii.org/penmi/linuxtag-2001/.
Recently the patentability of software and business methods has
become a
subject of an intense public debate with expert input from a wide
range of
fields, including engineering, informatics, law, economics and
philosophy.
At the core of this debate lies the distinction between matter-based
“technical inventions” and mind-based “rules of organisation and
calculation”. This requirement of “technicity”, in its original
meaning,
leads to the exclusion of software and intangible services from
patentability. The notion of technicity, in its recent meaning
defined by
judges at the European Patent Office, leads to the patentability of
software and intangible services and to a de facto limitless patent
system.
The seminar will study the evolution of the meaning of technicity in
the
last 15 years. Participants include lawyers, software specialists,
representatives of professional associations, politicians, civil
servants
and researchers.
The seminar will be organised at LinuxTag in Germany, one of the
most
active market for free/opensource software in Europe. LinuxTag is
the
biggest Linux exhibition in the world. Free software is actively
supported
by the German governments which sponsors projects such a GPG as well
as
the Berlios opensource software portal (http://www.berlios.de).
Registration
If you want to participate, please contact linuxtag-2001@ffii.org.
About EuroLinux – www.EuroLinux.org
The EuroLinux Alliance for a Free Information Infrastructure is an
open
coalition of commercial companies and non-profit associations united
to
promote and protect a vigourous European Software Culture based on
Open
Standards, Open Competition, Linux and Open Source Software.
Companies
members or supporters of EuroLinux develop or sell software under
free,
semi-free and non-free licenses for operating systems such as Linux,
MacOS
or Windows.
The EuroLinux Alliance launched on 2000-06-15 an electronic petition
to
protect software innovation in Europe. The EuroLinux petition has
received
so far massive support from more than 80.000 European citizens, 2000
corporate managers and 300 companies.
The EuroLinux Alliance has co-organised in 1999, together with the
French
Embassy in Japan, the first Europe-Japan conference on Linux and
Free
Software. The EuroLinux Alliance is at the initiative of the
www.freepatents.org web site to promote and protect innovation and
competition in the European IT industry.
Press Contacts
France & Europe: Stefane Fermigier sf@fermigier.com +33-6 63 04 12
77
Germany & Europe: Harmut Pilch phm@ffii.org +49-89 127 89 608
Denmark and Northern Europe: Anne O/stergaard aoe@sslug.dk
Belgium: Nicolas Pettiaux nicolas.pettiaux@linuxbe.org
Legalese
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
All other trademarks and copyrights are owned by their respective
companies.
