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Submission + - FFII crowdfunds a complaint against Unitary Software Patents in Germany (ffii.org)

Submitted by zoobab
zoobab writes: The FFII is crowdfunding a constitutional complaint in Germany against the third attempt to impose software patents in Europe, calling on all software companies, independent software developers and FLOSS authors to donate. The Unitary Patent and its Court will promote patent trolls, without any appeal possible to the European Court of Justice (CJEU), which won't be able to rule on patent law, and software patents in particular. The FFII also says that the proposed court system will be more expensive for small companies (SMEs) then the current national court system.

Submission + - SPAM: FFII call on donations against EU Software Patents

Submitted by zoobab
zoobab writes: As the Unitary Patent has entered the German Bundestag today, FFII.org is calling on donations to challenge the third attempt to impose software patents in Europe. The proposed Unified Patent Court would create case law in favour of patentability of software, using the "technical effect" or "as such" loopholes. FFII is also calling on german software developers and companies to contact their Members of the Bundestag.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - SPAM: Unitary Patent: Germany is ignoring Brexit, European law, its Court and Italy

Submitted by zoobab
zoobab writes: The German government is pushing for a second vote on the Unitary (Software) Patent at the Bundestag. By signing an internal treaty with the UK as signatory, Germany is ignoring Brexit, and will violate EU law (see Nonprofit Argues Germany Can't Ratify the 'Unitary Patent' Because of Brexit). The government has resorted to a very creative interpretation of the agreement in order to ignore the Brexit problem, showing its dedication to see the UPC agreement entering into force ‘whatever it takes’, at the risks of alienating Italy, with an automatic relocation of the UPC court from London to Paris instead of Milan. With the German Presidency starting in a few weeks, Germany risks to undermine the functioning the European Union.

Companies concerned about patent trolls and software patents via the backdoor should urgently call their MP for a debate in their national parliaments. In 2007, the European Parliament legal service killed the predecessor treaty, the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA), which was including non-EU countries such as Switzerland or Turkey.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Germany can no longer ratify the Unitary Software Patent due to Brexit and AETR (ffii.org)

Submitted by zoobab
zoobab writes: The Unitary Patent signals the third attempt to validate and expand software patents in Europe. Germany cannot ratify the current Unitary Patent due to Brexit and the established AETR case-law. The ratification of the UPC (Unified Patent Court) by Germany would constitute a violation of the AETR case-law, which was used during the EPLA negotiations in 2006 to consider a deal with non-EU countries, such as Switzerland. FFII says that if Germany proceeds with the ratification, it will open up the possibility for a second constitutional complaint.

Comment EPO is not EU, out of (parliamentary) control (Score 1) 39

Please correct your article, EPO is not EU.

It is not an European Union (EU) institution, it is an international organization.

It is going fully rogue at the moment.

EPO is the "European Patent Office", not the Patent Office of the European Union, which does not exist.

Submission + - CDU/CSU/SPD playing tricks to avoid Bundestag vote on internet upload filters (fosspatents.com)

Submitted by zoobab
zoobab writes: On Friday, the Left Party group in the German Bundestag (federal parliament) announced a motion for a resolution calling on the German government to oppose adoption of the bill in the EU Council on internet upload filters. The countries that opposed the political agreement in February collectively account for approximately 24% of the total EU population; with Germany's 16% on top, the 35% quorum for a blocking minority would be more than met. [...] But later it became known, based on tweets by Petra Sitte, a member of the German federal parliament from the Left Party, and by a staffer of the Left Party's parliamentary group, that the government coalition parties (Christian Democratic Union, Christian Social Union, and Social Democratic Party) had decided to refer the matter to the relevant parliamentary committees, therefore avoiding a vote on the matter.

New demonstrations against internet upload filters are planned all over Germany this week-end.

Submission + - Github install upload filters to comply with new EU copyright directive (ffii.org)

Submitted by zoobab
zoobab writes: Github has installed upload filters over the week-end to comply with the new european copyright directive on ‘upload filters’. Microsoft lawyers has been busy interpreting the new exception for “open source code sharing platforms” that the directive provides. They came to the conclusion that Github was not covered by the exception, since it also hosts many code repositories without a proper open source LICENSE file. Matthias Kirschberg, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE): “We welcome Github’s move to install copyright filters, but we would prefer if those filters would be released under a free software license. We have called last week on the European Commission to spend some public money in the context of H2020 in order to develop those open filters. We will also ask Github to remove all code repositories which do not have a valid open source LICENSE file. This will have a higher impact then GPL enforcement.”

Submission + - UK software companies oppose Unitary Patent ratification (nounitarysoftwarepatents.uk)

Submitted by zoobab
zoobab writes: Companies across UK have expressed their opposition to an attempt to ratify the Unitary Patent treaty which is neither desirable for British software companies nor compatible with Brexit. They call for an urgent debate in the House of Lords and in the Scottish Parliament. Maurice Shakeshaft, CEO of CB Automation Ltd, from Newark: "The Unitary Patent will be the nail in the coffin for the european software industry. This court will be populated by members of the patent industry, which has broadened the scope of patents to software for the last 30 years."

Submission + - EPO admits the Unitary Patent is all about software patents (twitter.com)

Submitted by zoobab
zoobab writes: The European Patent Office (EPO) has recognised that the Unitary Patent Court will provide harmonisation across Europe on the issue of software patents. In a conference in London held few days ago, EPO’s Grant Philpott said "The UPC (Unitary Patent Court) will provide strong harmonisation in ICT applications that will play a dominant role in patent world". A recent leak by Techrights.org also shows that the EPO has been prioritizing patent applications for a few large non-European companies, such as Microsoft or Huawei. The leaked document and webpage is now made inacessible and filtered from the internet access within the EPO premises.

Comment Re:Translations should still be required (Score 4, Informative) 42

For the swedish case, it is even worse, as Sweden already ratified, and the only language of the regional court will be english only. Meaning that a swedish company accused in court will have to hire a translator. And patents will only be available in english of course, translations in swedish will be made "non-legally binding" bu the unipat.

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