FFII

European Patent Office censors Spanish contributions to its 2023 public consultation

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PRESS RELEASE — [ Europe / Spain / Patent / Democracy / Censorship / Economy ]

Madrid, 24 June 2019 – The European Patent Office (EPO) has censored contributions to its public consultation ‘EPO2023’ from spanish companies and citizens. The EPO wanted input from the public on how they could “improve” themselves, but failed to be inclusive. Seven contributions were refused on the basis that the EPO only accept contributions from the public only in its official three languages (English, German, French). Apparently, other contributions in Dutch were also censored. The first form was already biased as the EPO considered all companies to be “patent applicants”, so a normal company interested in to participate had to tick the option “other” instead of “company”.

FFII

World Intellectual Parasites Day: software patent trolls rejoice over Unitary Patent Court

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Today is World Intellectual Parasites Day, the day where patent trolls rejoice over sucking more blood out of software companies. Patent parasites rejoice over the creation of the european Unitary Patent Court (UPC), which will create an undemocratic monster fully captured by the parasite industry. Patent parasites are also pushing for a rewrite of the laws in the United States, in order to restore software patents, and continue to suck more blood out the software industry. Video: Unified Patent Court effets on SMEs in Europe


Planisware CEO Pierre Demonsant explains attacks from patent trolls (seek to 02:05). Links

World Intellectual Property Day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Intellectual_Property_Day Tick parasite, credit: Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tick_male_(aka).jpg FFII: Software Patents through a central patent court:http://epla.ffii.org/quotes Youtube: Unified Patent Court effects on SMEs in Europehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR2l3UC67Rc&t=127 EFF: The Tillis-Coons patent bill will be a disaster for innovation https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/04/tillis-coons-patent-bill-will-be-disaster-innovation

FFII

Open letter to Prime Minister of Estonia and Members of Parliament on Internet Upload Filters

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Dear Prime Minister of Estonia,
Dear Members of Parliament of Estonia,

I am calling on Estonian politicians to “take back control” over its nationalposition over the adoption of controversal Copyright Directive (“internetupload filters”) that is scheduled to be “formally” adopted on Mondayby the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Estonia has made the following statement [1] yesterday regarding the adoption of the directive:

“Estonia has always supported the objective of the Directive, namely better access to content online, the functioning of key exceptions in the digital and cross-border environment and the better and balanced functioning of thecopyright marketplace.However, Estonia considers that the final text of the Directive does notstrike a sufficient balance between different interests in all aspects.Furthermore, Estonia has recently had parliamentary elections and our new government and parliament have not been able to give their position on the final compromise text.” I have personally contacted the permanent representation of Estonia (COREPER) in Brussels, which has confirmed that, despite the newly formed government and parliament, it is not the intention of the Estonian delegation in Council to ask for a removal of the dossier from the A-items list on Monday. I am therefore calling on your Government and your newly elected Parliament [2] to ask for a formal delay, and to assess properly the negative economic consequences of this ill-conceived directive, notably for the burgeoning internet economy. Best regards,

HENRION Benjamin,President of FFII.orgBelgium

Links

1.

FFII

Github installs upload filters to comply with new EU copyright directive

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PRESS RELEASE — [ Europe / Democracy / Censorship / Economy / Copyright ]
Brussels, 01 April 2019 – Github has installed upload filters over the week-end to comply with the new european copyright directive on ‘upload filters’. Microsoft lawyers have 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. Jürgen Voss, open source developer for Bosch, says: “This Sunday I tried to push some changes via Github, some commits were refused because Github installed some copyright filters. The pre-git-commit-hook message was complaining about “citation too long”, as I was quoting an article from IAMBIASED IP magazine.

FFII

FFII call on national parliaments to reverse soviet-style internet upload filters

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PRESS RELEASE – [ Europe / Democracy / Censorship / Economy / Copyright ]

Brussels, 29 March 2019 – FFII is calling on angry protesters against internet upload filters to reverse the position of their country by calling for a vote in their national parliament. Council of the Ministers is an undemocratic institution where decisions on this particular subject are made by officials of the Member States’s ministries of culture. FFII call on national parliaments to ‘take back control’. The adoption of internet upload filters is a strategic mistake that will fuel the eurosceptics game at the coming elections. Boris Johnson’s reaction to european parliament vote yesterday left no doubt about it.

FFII

UK software companies oppose Unitary Patent ratification

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London, 9th March 2017 – 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. After years of intense lobbying by large corporations, as well as their patent lawyers, progress was made towards a Unitary Patent Court (UPC) that would not only facilitate expansion of patent scope to software but also usher in so-called ‘patent trolls’. The Unitary Patent Court will have pan-european authority to impose injunctions, royalties for supposed damages from British companies. This represents an existential threat to many British companies, which foreign companies are hoping to thwart or cripple using patents.