Working Groups

Members have established a number of working groups at the FFII to achieve specified goals in areas such as software patents, open standards, transparency, trade agreements and other digital and consumer related topics. Examples of common goals for working groups at the FFII include: Creation of informational documents on patent legislation related to software, creation of open document standards, resolution of problems related to International legal topics and trade negotiations, continuous improvement of IT systems and open access for researchers, educators and scientists.

Overview of Working Groups and Lists: Find an overview of working groups and their mailing lists here.

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Featured Working Groups


Software Patents Working Group

Educating the public and protecting consumer rights are the core aims in the FFII statutes. The FFII software patents groups engage in numerous activities around the world to achieve this goal. A land mark was the Bilski case at the US Supreme Court: The FFII and IP Justice filed a joint Amicus Curiae Brief to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case Bilski v. Kappos is expected to become a landmark ruling on the future of the U.S. patent system. Our Brief explains the interlink of software and business methods, and points out alternatives to the so called Machine-or-Transformation test used for categorizing patents. Bilski v. Kappos is considered the single most important decision worldwide on the issue of patents on business methods, software and algorithms since the rejection of the EU Software Patents Directive.

Join Working Group [here]


WIPO Working Group

The FFII is a registered observer organisation at WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation). The FFII WIPO group participates in activities of stakeholders and in the WIPO Conference on Intellectual Property and Public Policy Issues and on the thirteenth session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents. Reports are available to FFII members. More info from the work group.

Join Working Group [here]


Transparency Working Group

The goal of the transparency working group is to enable better public transparency of preparatory documents from the European Council of Ministers for citizens of the Union and civil society persons. It is part of FFII’s focus on eGovernment and OpenData contributions to democratic citizenship.  

Join Working Group [here]


Trade Agreements Working Group

The Trade Agreements working group was originally started when the EU, US and Japan negotiated an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) behind closed doors. No official drafts were published. The FFII followed closely the negotiations. ACTA contained a new international benchmark for legal frameworks on the enforcement of copyrights, trade mark rights, patents and others. The FFII outlined shortcomings and democratic deficit, presented an analysis and put together a draft recommendation to conclude ACTA under the Lisbon regime. The FFII issued several press releases which have been broadly covered by the media. Already in July 2009 the Centre for Intellectual property Law of Utrecht University organized a lecture by Prof. Charles McManis about ACTA. FFII’s Ante Wessels participated adding remarks about the problems of the proposed agreement.

Join Working Group [here]