Information sources on Patents and Intellectual property

Index

Countries

Sites

• 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

Lists

• 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.

Papers

• 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).

Documents

• 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.

Recherche de brevets   -   Searching for patents

• The European Patent Office
• Delphion Intellectual Property Network
• INPI

Stupid or dangerous patents, and other abuses

• Brevets concernant la formation en ligne - Patents about on-line education
• La galerie des horreurs du brevets logiciels
• Controversial Patents collected by Dale Dougherty, at O'Reilly.
• European Software Patents: Assorted Examples: They were almost randomly chosen and thus approximately represent the technicity and inventivity standards of the European Patent Office.

Threats on free software

• 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

Patents against Free / Open-source Software

• Convolver patent,
• TrueType patents - version française

Europe

• 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

OEB - EPO

• Dai Rees, Director, Directorate 2.2.01, European Patent Office, talks to Richard Poynder IP Matters, October 26, 2001. - The US is the most powerful single economy in the world and it is evolving more and more into an economy that relies on IP. So IP is very, very important to the Americans. As such they want to protect their income from IP, and would therefore very much like to export their model of offering very broad protection to patents.
• IBM decision of Technical Board of Appeal 3.5.1 dated 1 July 1998

Belgique

• Compte-rendu intégral numero 282 (24/10/2000) : Questions orales sur les brevets (en .doc)
  Compte-rendu analytique numero 282 (24/10/2000) : Questions orales sur les brevets (en .doc)

Deutschland

• BMWi-Studie zu Software-Patentierung und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der deutschen Softwarebranche erschienen
• Mikro- und makroökonomische Implikationen der Patentierbarkeit von Softwareinnovationen: Geistige Eigentumsrechte in der Informationstechnologie im Spannungsfeld von Wettbewerb und Innovation Knut Blind and Jakob Edler (Fraunhofer Institut), Ralph Nack and Joseph Straus (Max Planck Institut), September 2001. - - Micro- and Macroeconomic Implications of the Patentability of Software Innovations. Intellectual Property Rights in Information Technologies between Competition and Innovation.

Denmark

• PROSA Says No to Software Patents Meeting of Delegates, November 19th 2000. -

France

• 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.

Italia

• Dossier di EuroLinux sulla Brevettabilita' del Software

Netherland

• 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.

United Kingdom

• Should Patents be Granted for Computer Software or Ways of Doing Business? Consultation by UK Patent Office.
• Responses
• Patents for software and business methods : conclusions on Government consultation on patents for software and ways of doing business : The Government's Conclusions - the press release and the Annex A: Consultation Document of 01.11.2000
• UK seeks to clarify law on software patents Jean Eaglesham, Financial Times, Mar 13, 2001. - European Commission should not follow the US ... e-commerce minister: "So a program for a new machine tool should be patentable but a non-technological innovation, such as grammar-checking software for a word-processor, should not be"

USA

• 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 -

Presse et dossiers - Press Files and articles

• La bataille cachée du brevet sur le logiciel, Le Monde Interactif, 15 novembre 2000.
• Suit Turns the Tables on Patent Critic, Brenda Sandburg, The Recorder, October 31, 2000. - An interesting case of using general patents infringement in software to go after selected people for irrelevant reasons... like their free speech.

Communiqués de Presse - Press Releases

Other Documents   -   Autres documents

• 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

DMCA

• The European Council Directive on the harmonisation of certain aspects of Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society: a brief overview Sandy Norman, 67th IFLA Conference, August 16-25, 2001. - - Français

Hague Convention

• The Hague Convention, Eurolinux Alliance - auf deutsch
• CPT's Page on the Hague Conference on Private International Law's Proposed Convention on Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, Consumer Project on Technology:
  What you should know about The Hague Conference on Private International Law's Proposed Convention on Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, James Love, Version 1.0a, June 2, 2001. -
• The Draft Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Cases - what it means for libraries Miriam M. Nisbet, 67th IFLA Conference, August 16-25, 2001. - - Français

Eurolinux

• Eurolinux Position on the Community Patent, December 3, 2001. - pdf

Miscellani

• wipout.net : le contre-concours en propriété intellectuelle.

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