[Fsfe-uk] Re: [uk-parl] EC Information Technology "Task Force" - swpat again?

[James Heald]

Alex Hudson wrote:
> Apparently the EC is not the burning IT powerhouse that it ought to be:
>
>         http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/0,39020645,39273872,00.htm
>
> Old friends Nokia, Philips, etc., are all helping with this initiative.
>
> The article specifically mentions that they'll be looking at patents...

More info at:
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/731&type=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Simon Phipps of Sun also mentions in his blog that he is going to be 
involved, presumably in support of Crawford Beveridge, chief of Sun 
outside the USA and formerly head of Scottish Enterprise.

Together with Eric Newcomer of IONA they should be able to say some 
sensible things about patents, standard setting and interoperability; 
though I think IONA as a whole has a fairly flexible line on software 
patents.

François Bancilhon of Mandriva is going to be on there, as well as 
Hans-Werner Müller of UEAPME and Jim Murray of BEUC in "stakeholder" 
roles (I'd imagine again represented by more junior people in the more 
day-to-day preparatory level).

But it does seem to be rather short on real-world SME input, to stand up 
to the massed ranks of EICTA board member types (presumably for all the 
usual reasons -- SMEs have a business to run!)


Of the five focal areas to be discussed, one is directly IPRs; another 
is "SMEs and entrepreneurship", which will also explicitly include a 
look at the effects of patents.