[Esp-action-alert] Israel: one month to end software patents

[Ciaran O'Riordan]

Source: http://news.swpat.org/2010/01/israel-consultation-deadline-february/

Israel: one month to end software patents

I need help contacting groups in Israel.  With a February deadline, the
Israeli patent office is asking if it should grant software patents.  To
help, join this mailing list:

* address@hidden
* sign up form: http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/israel-public-discuss

As usual, the small businesses, individual programmers, and software user
groups don’t seem to have noticed this consultation.  This is common in
public consultations – but you can bet the lawyers groups and the
multinationals are aware and working on their submissions.  So I need help
with informing people in Israel now so they have some time to get prepare
submissions.

Information pages:

    * http://news.swpat.org/2009/11/israel-in-danger-of-software-patents/
    * http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Israel

I don’t have any contacts in Israel.  I’ve searched around for the sort of
groups that should be interested but have only found two programmer
groups.  Some good news: they both use English as their working language, so
there’s no need to worry about not knowing the national languages.

I’ve recently examined the submissions to a few public consultations, and
I’ve noticed that software developers, small businesses, and software user
groups don’t participate much.  Three examples are Europe, the USA, and
Australia.[links hereafter] So there’s a worry that the patent office, even
in good faith, is failing to reach the people who will suffer the negative
effects of software patents.

* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Australian_consultation_responses_2009
* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Bilski_v._Kappos_amicus_briefs
* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Briefs_submitted_to_EPO_EBA_G3-08

The Israeli courts have thrown out software patents, so there’s a real
chance to end software patents there.  It would be a terrible missed
opportunity if software ideas became patentable just because a consultation
reached the wrong people.

Lawyers groups and big multinationals are usually aware of these
consultations, and they have the resources and procedural know-how to
participate.  Please help raise awareness of this.

(While I’m ringing alarm bells, I should mention that Australia is going to
have a software patent legislative proposal soon.  I’ll put out more info on
that soon.  http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Australia )

-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan,
Executive Director, End Software Patents
+32 487 64 17 54
address@hidden