Information sources on Patents and Intellectual property
Index
Countries -
Sites -
Lists -
Papers -
Documents -
Searching for patents -
Abuses -
Threats on free software -
Open-source -
Press -
Others -
DMCA -
Hague Convention -
Miscellani ... concours -
Eurolinux -
-
Europe -
OEB - EPO -
Belgique -
Denmark -
Deutschland -
France -
Italia -
Netherland -
United Kingdom -
USA
- Patent Offices:
USPTO,
UK PO, INPI,
OEB / EPO,
OMPI
/
WIPO
- The
Eurolinux Alliance at
http://www.eurolinux.org/
and its petition against software patents
http://petition.eurolinux.org/
Translations:
Italian
- FFII site on software patents
http://swpat.ffii.org/
- Free-Patents
http://freepatents.org/ and its mailing list
http://liberte.aful.org/mailman/listinfo/patents
- ABUL:
Articles sur les brevets logiciels
- A long report (150p), also available in English
Stimuler l'innovation et
la concurrence dans la société de l'information Site on
software patents by Jean-Paul Smets, with a collection of
documents.
http://www.pro-innovation.org/
-
Bibliography of Material Available on the Internet against Patents
by Francois-René Rideau.
-
Bernard Lang's collection of references
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~lang/reperes/patents/
-
Software Patents, IP::JUR - introduction and bibliography
-
Intellectual Property Initiative, its
background
and its
completed project list with access to report summaries,
by
ESRC,
DTI and
IPI
-
IPR-Helpdesk articles, including
Patentability of Computer Programs -
french -
german
-
Request for Comments on the International Effort to Harmonize
the Substantive Requirements of Patent Laws, 20March2001. -
Compare USA patenting practices with others.
-
Legal resources and tools for surviving the bad patents
A site maintained by
Gregory Aharonian.
- USA : Government
Intellectual Property site - The WikiPatents Community reviews patents and applications, and has free patent PDF downloads and search.
-
Software patents - Commission launches consultations,
European Commission, General Directorate for the Internal Market, 19 October 2000. -
The aim of the consultation is to help the Commission to
identify the best approach to the issue so as to strike the right
balance between promoting innovation and ensuring adequate competition
in the market place.
-
Intellectual Property Rights Helpdesk
of the European Commission.
-
Directive 91/250/CEE du Conseil, du 14 mai 1991, concernant la protection juridique des programmes d'ordinateur,
Journal officiel n° L 122 du 17/05/1991 p. 0042 - 0046. -
L'autorisation du titulaire des droits n'est pas requise
lorsque la reproduction du code ou la traduction de la forme de ce
code a ... est indispensable pour obtenir les informations nécessaires
à l'interopérabilité d'un programme d'ordinateur
-
OSSLaw : une loi proposée par
les députés Jean-Yves LE DÉAUT, Christian PAUL, Pierre COHEN et
Patrick Bloche, tendant à renforcer les libertés et la sécurité
du consommateur et à améliorer la concurrence dans la société de
l'information.
This law proposal supporting interoperability is also
available in english
-
Software Patents :
The site of the League for Programming Freedom, with pointers to many
documents.
-
Research on
Innovation is a non-profit organization created to conduct,
sponsor and promote research on technological innovation.
(director: Jim Bessen).
-
OpenPatents.org for non-agressive patents. See
Open Patent License and
Raph Levien's patents free for GPL.
-
No Web Patents: mostly on Amazon 1-click, a bit old.
-
Alliance for American Innovation ... they like patents :-) and
-
Dossier Brevets, Louvain-Li-nux.
- Europe Shareware:
Les brevets sur les logiciels et leur danger pour le shareware
-
APPEL contre la brevetabilité des êtres vivants et la monopolisation des ressources génétiques
General rule: Send a message with "help" as subject and first message
line to get info about the list.
- OpenPatents : subscribe at
openpatents-subscribe@lists.e-smith.org.
Intended for professional discussion.
-
Freesw@conecta.it : mailing
list dedicated to free software/libre software discussion, reated to
support discussions on the work of the european working group on free
software. See its web page for subscription.
-
-
La brevetabilite des logiciels
Alain Bensoussan, Colloque International Droit de l'Internet -
Approches Europeennes et Internationales, 20 novembre 2001. -
-
The Growing Complexity of the United States Patent System
John R. Allison and Mark A. Lemley, Berkeley Centre for Law and Technology WP 2-01, September 10, 2001. -
- and see
other papers
-
Rational Ignorance at the Patent Office,
Mark A. Lemley, UC Berkeley Public Law Research Paper No. 46, February 2001. -
In economic terms, the patent office is "rationally ignorant" of
the objective validity of the patents it issues. - He examines
arguments for spending resources improving PTO quality in the US. He
concludes that they are probably not worth it. -
full paper
-
The Digital Technology Boomerang: New Intellectual Property Rights Threaten Global "Open Science"
Paul A. David, Oxford & Stanford University, 12 October 2000. -
-
From keeping 'Nature's Secrets' to the institutionalization of 'Open Science'
Paul A. David, Oxford & Stanford University, 23 March 2001. -
-
full paper in pdf
-
Will Building 'Good Fences' Really Make 'Good Neighbors' in Science?
Paul A. David, Oxford & Stanford University, 18 March 2001. -
-
full paper in pdf
- "The Models are Broken, the Models Are Broken!" by Allen Newell,
University of Pittsburgh Law Review, 1986, Vol 47, pp. 1023-1035.
-
Sequential innovation, patents, and imitation,
James Bessen and Eric Maskin, MIT, Dept of Economics, Working
paper, N. 00-01, January 2000. -
- German:
Sequentielle Innovation, Patente und Imitation
-
Open Source Software: Free Provision Of Complex Public Goods
James E. Bessen, SSRN Electronic Library, may 2001. -
Standard theory holds that without property rights (or
excludability), free-riding inhibits private investment in non-rival
goods such as information and software. I argue that the complexity
of software changes the results. For complex goods under asymmetric
information, open source developers self-select, offsetting
free-riding losses. -
abstract and
other URL.
-
Combining Inventions in Multi-invention Products: Organizational Choices, Patents, and Public Policy, Deepak Somaya and David J. Teece, November 30, 2000.
-
Les services financiers utilisant de nouvelles
méthodes commerciales rendues possibles grâce à des logiciels sont
désormais brevetables aux Etats-Unis - avec des effets
extra-territoriaux, John B. Moetteli, Journal of World Intellectual Property, mai 1999. -
-
The Emergence of E-Innovation: Insights From Open Source Software Development, Bruce Kogut and Anca Meitu, WP 2000-11,
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
-
The Patent Paradox Revisited: An Empirical Study of Patenting in the US Semiconductor Industry, 1979-1995, Bronwyn H. Hall and Rosemarie Ham Ziedonis, WP 2000-16,
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
-
Internet-Driven Innovation and Economic Performance in the American Automobile Industry, Charles H. Fine and Daniel M.G. Raff, WP 2001-01,
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
-
Does Good Science Lead to Valuable Knowledge? Biotechnology Firms and the Evolutionary Logic of Citation Patterns,
Michelle Gittelman and Bruce Kogut, WP 2001-04,
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
-
Open Source Software Development and Distributed Innovation,
Bruce Kogut and Anca Metiu, WP 2001-08,
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
-
Debunking the Software Patent Myths, Paul Heckel, Communications of the ACM, June, 1992. (pro-swpat)
-
Patenting mathematical algorithms: What's the harm? - A thought experiment in algebra,
Paul B. de Laat, International Review of Law and Economics,
Volume 20, Issue 2, 01-June-2000 -
abstract
-
Brand/product innovation and the optimal length of trademark/patent protection ,
M.R. Veall, Economics Letters
Vol. 40 (4) pp. 491-496, 01-December-1992.
-
the optimal length of trademark/patent protection is finite and
varies with the costs of innovation and production, -
abstract
-
Patents and Copyrights: do the benefits exceed the costs?
Julio H. Cole, Universidad Francisco Marroquín (Guatemala), Sept. 4, 2000. -
text
-
Caught in a Web, Intellectual Property in Cyberspace
IP Matters, April 16 2001.
-
all pages -
pdf
-
Patent Scope and Innovation in the Software Industry
Julie E. Cohen and Mark A. Lemley, 89 Calif. L. Rev. 1, January, 2001. -
Patent law needs some refinement if it is to promote
rather than impede the growth of [software industry]
-
As many as six impossible patents before breakfast: property rights for business concepts and patent system reform
Robert P. Merges, Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 14:2 (Spring 1999),
Symposium: the Legal and Policy Framework for Global Electronic Commerce - A Progress Report. -
-
Nonobviousness and the Incentive to Innovate: An Economic Analysis of Intellectual Property Reform
Robert M. Hunt, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Working Paper No. 99-3, March 1999. -
The author shows that weaker nonobviousness requirements
can lead to less R&D activity, and this is more likely to occur in
industries that rapidly innovate. -
abstract
-
How to Use Patent Law to the Advantage of Open-Source Software Developers,
Nigel Howard, Dan Ravicher and Ken Johnson, Intellectual Property Strategist (2001).
-
Software patents and their impact in Europe
Joaquín Seoane Pascual and Ramón García Fernández, Madrid, December 2000.
-
Role Play Material from MIT's EECS Department
Hal Anderson, Caroline Whitbeck and others
MIT undergraduate corriculum of the Department of
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - an introduction to IP
in software.
-
Protecting their Intellectual Assets: Appropriability Conditions and Why U.S. Manufacturing Firms Patent (or not)
Wesley M. Cohen, Richard R. Nelson, John P. Walsh, NBER Working Paper No. W7552, February 2000. -
firms typically protect the profits due to invention with
a range of mechanisms, including patents, secrecy, lead time
advantages and the use of complementary marketing and manufacturing
capabilities. Of these mechanisms, however, patents tend to be the
least emphasized by firms in the majority of manufacturing industries,
and secrecy and lead time tend to be emphasized most heavily. ...
patents may be relied upon somewhat more heavily by larger firms now
than in the early 1980s. ... In addition to the prevention of copying,
the most prominent motives for patenting include the prevention of
rivals from patenting related inventions (i.e., patent blocking'), the
use of patents in negotiations and the prevention of suits. - in
other words the role of patents is to fight patents (and enrich lawyers).
-
-
W3C Patent Policy
Framework W3C Working Draft 16 August 2001. - This is a
W3C Working Draft for review by W3C Members and other interested
parties.
-
Patent protection of computer programmes,
Final Report Submitted to European Commission, Directorate-General Enterprise, Contract no. INNO-99-04, 22 May 2001. -
Puay Tang, John Adams, Daniel Paré,
Yet another distorted conclusion for a negative study
on software patents.
-
Patents bibliography
-
New Weapon in Fight Against Bogus Patents
Press release, Foresight Institute, May 8, 2001. -
Top Open Source Leaders Endorse "PriorArt.org" Initiative
... Billions at Stake in Internet Patent Wars ... never trust the gurus.
-
Software
Patents in Europe: meeting the challenges of harmonisation
and development in Europe, Conference, March 23 1998, London.
Comment on published papers for the conference Philip
Leith, Digital Technology Law Journal, Vol. 1, N° 1 (January
1999).
-
Commission welcomes Council agreement on a Directive on copyright in the information society -
Bolkestein
-
Brevetabilite du logiciel - Position de SYNTEC-Informatique,
13 décembre 2000.
-
Stimuler l'innovation et la concurrence dans la société de
l'information, Jean-Paul Smets-Solanes, Version 1.0 beta 5,
22/9/2000.
-
The Economic Impact of Patentability of Computer Programs,
Report to the European Commission, Robert Hart, Peter Holmes,
John Reid, - IP Institute, no date. [obsolete URL]
-
An Industry at Risk by the League for Programming Freedom.
-
About the November 2000 Diplomatic Conference in Munich
for the Revision of the 1973 European Patent Convention
-
Software Patents: Opinions, Analyses, Proposals
Documents on
FFI site : EPC 52, TRIPS, ...
- MR/8/00 Basic proposal:
Articles 14, 52 - Protocol on the Interpretation of Article 69
(French delegation)
- Though it is apparently supporting software patents, the European
Commission is now showing interest in open source and Linux. Harbinger
for a change in policies ?
See the
page of ISTAG
(the IST Programme Advisory Group) and their draft of the
Orientations for Workprogramme 2000 and beyond.
-
Of Green Tulips and Legal Kudzu: Repackaging Rights in Subpatentable Innovation,
J. H. Reichman, Vanderbilt Law Review, Vol. 53:6:1743-1798, 2000. -
-
A History of System of Industrial Property Rights
MITI. -
very brief ... but international
-
Five hundred years of patents
UK Patent Office. -
brief history
-
Articles sur les brevets logiciels de Francois Pellegrini.
Egalement
disponibles à l'ABUL.
-
Why software shouldn't be covered by patents ,
Tord Jansson, 07-mar-01. -
- Why they patent problems rather than solutions :
Guidelines for examination in the EPO,
Inventive step, see section 9.4.
-
-
The freeType project
is threatened by Apple TrueType patents.
-
BladeEnc is threatened by MP3 patents.
- There is no free Quicktime player on Linux, or Windows Media
compatible movie player on Linux
-
-
-
Proposition de Directive Européenne sur les brevets logiciels,
Documents officiels, commentaires et articles
(collecté par Bernard Lang)
-
Diplomatic Conference for the Revision of the EPC
will be held on 2002-06-10 in Munich.
-
Report:
The patentability of computer-implemented inventions
Commission of the European Communities, DG Internal Market,
Brussels, 19.10.2000. -
alt - typical example page 4, paragraph 3: "the user interface of a business management system".
-
Analysis of replies to the Consultation Paper on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions -
Analyse
des réponses au document de consultation sur la
brevetabilité des inventions mises en oeuvre par ordinateur
The report:
The results of the European Commission Consultation exercise on the patentability of computer implemented inventions
PbT Consultants Under contract number PRS/2000/A0-7002/E/98, July 24. 2001. -
Opponents of software patents wanted swift action on the part of
the Commission but the radical nature of their proposals would require
substantial negotiation if the Commission were minded to pursue a
restrictive policy regarding software patents. - i.e. a "radical"
is someone who wants the respect of international treaties.
The Forum site with references and the
forum itself.
Comments from
FFII on some submissions
-
Brevets - la Commission adopte un Livre Vert avec le
document complet en pdf.
Patents - Commission approves Green Paper with the
full document in pdf.
-
Brevets: la Commission expose les grandes lignes d'un plan de mesures ambitieux avec le
document complet en pdf.
Patents: Commission outlines ambitious series of measures with the
full document in pdf.
-
Proposition modifiée de directive pour la protection des inventions par le modèle d'utilité avec le
document complet en pdf.
Amended proposal for a Directive on the protection of inventions by utility model with the
full document in pdf.
-
Address to Irish Exporters' Association
Frits Bolkestein, European Commissionner for Internal Market, Dublin, 29 May 2001. -
there is no support for moving to a very wide protection
extending, for example to business methods
-
-
-
La brevetabilité des inventions logicielles :
site on software patenting by the French Ministry of Finances and Industry.
(the useful part without the framing stuff).
The site contains many references to other documents and studies,
in French and English.
-
L'AFUL brevète les 35
heures!!!, Communiqués de Presse, Paris, 15 novembre 2000.
-
Un problème important et urgent : un droit de la propriété intellectuelle adapté au logiciel
Jean-Michel Yolin, 1er avril 2001 . -
-
L'académie des technologies émet un avis favorable à l'extension de la brevetabilité des logiciels,
information, site du Premier Ministre, 8 juillet 2001.
-
Avis de l'académie des technologies concernant la Brevetabilité des inventions mises en oeuvre par ordinateur, 18 juillet 2001.
-
L'Académie des technologies appelle à la brevetabilité "encadrée" des logiciels
Communiqué du Premier Ministre, 19-07-2001 19:00. -
L'ensemble de ces préconisations devrait permettre de
mettre fin aux dérives actuelles et contribuer à renforcer la sécurité
juridique des brevets pour l'avenir.
-
Table-ronde brevetabilité du logiciel
MEFI, 22 octobre 1999. -
Une réunion sabotée délibérément par un fonctionnaire du MEFI
et ses acolytes de l'INPI.
- Code de la propriété intellectuelle :
pdf.zip -
html.zip
-
Interoperabiliy
-
ATICA
Décret no 2001-737 du 22 août 2001 portant création de l'Agence pour les
technologies de l'information et de la communication dans l'administration
-
Circulaire du 23 mai 2001 relative au choix des formats pour la
réalisation de documents constitués de données numériques
-
Pour une administration électronique citoyenne
Rapport remis au Premier ministre par Thierry Carcenac, député du Tarn,
le 19 avril 2001.
-
-
Criteria voor patent protection of computerprograms,
P. van Schelven (FENIT)
and J. Helberg, M. van der Boom, L. van Dijk (VOSN), july 16, 2001. -
As the parliamentary committee on Economic Affairs has
ordered the secretary of state, in the event that the above criria
will not be implemented, the explicit prohibition of patentability of
software ``as such'' must be maintained. -
pdf
-
VOSN en FENIT bieden staatssecretaris EZ criteria aan voor octrooiering van computerprogrammatuur, 26 juli 2001. -
more info
-
Dutch Open Source Society, Industry Group Offer Software Patent Compromise,
Brenno J.S.A.A.F. de Winter, Linux Journal, 22-August-2001. -
Parliament of the Netherlands asked the Dutch Open Source Society
(VOSN) and FENIT, the Dutch IT company federation, to work together on
criteria for excluding trivial patents.
-
-
Petition Against Software Patents
-
In the US patent system, if the PTO looked at certain prior art and
decided to issue the patent anyway, the court is supposed to presume
the PTO was right to regard that prior art as insufficient. But if
the PTO was unaware of the prior art, then the court can look at it
with an unbiased eye. To see this rule in action, look at
In Re Portola Packaging, Inc., 110 F.3d 786; 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 6443; 42 U.S.P.Q.2D (BNA) 1295.
-
Addressing the Patent Gold Rush: The Role of Deference to PTO Patent Denial,
Arti Rai (working paper, April 28, 2000),
2 Wash. U. J.L. & Pol'y 199 (2000).
CAFC, by reversing key patent _denials_ appealed from the PTO by
would-be patentees has triggered the current flood of business method
and software patent.
-
Jerome Lemelson - The Patent King,
Nicholas Varchaver, FORTUNE, May 14, 2001. -
he never invented the key technologies for which he had
the patents -
Communiqués de Presse - Press Releases
-
Les
brevets d'invention et les droits d'auteur sont-ils des
privilèges ou des droits de la propriété
intellectuelle ?,
Bertrand Lemennicier, 16/09/99. -
-
Externalités
positives, bien collectifs et mécanismes d'appropriation,
Bertrand Lemennicier,
Microéconomie : Théorie et Applications,
Module 4 :Théorie des droits de propriété et liberté contractuelle, Chapitre 16.
-
The Role of Intellectual Property Rights in Biotechnology Transfer Under the Convention on Biological Diversity,
W.Lesser, ISAAA Briefs No. 3, 1997 -
pdf
-
Quotes on Software Patents by the
League for Programming Freedom
- Directive 2001/29/CE du Parlement Européen et du Conseil du 22 mai 2001
sur l'harmonisation de certains aspects du droit d'auteur et des droits voisins dans la société de l'information
Journal officiel des Communautés Européennes, 22.6.2001, L 167, pp 10-19.
-
The Tragedy of the Commons
Garrett Hardin, Science 162, 1243 (1968).
- full text in
html or
pdf
-
Can Patents Deter Innovation? The Anticommons in Biomedical Research
Michael A. Heller, Rebecca S. Eisenberg, Science,
full text in
html or
pdf -
abstract
-
-
-
wipout.net : le contre-concours en propriété intellectuelle.
-
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All documents are under the responsibility of their authors, and do
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