Re: Are software patents legal in .nl?
On Sun, Sep 08, 2002 at 00:38:09 -0500, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
> Are software patents legal in .nl?
IANAL, but AFAIK the answer is "Yes", or at least "Effectively yes".
The Netherlands are a member of the European Union which is working on
regulations that explicitly allow software patents (albeit under tighter
rules than the US, allegedly). In the meantime, the European Patent Office
has been issueing software patents in violation of current regulations; see
http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/index.en.html
http://www.recht.nl/ie/dossiers/software/ collects some articles and
publications (in Dutch or English) pertaining to legal aspects of software
in the Netherlands. One of them is "De juridische en economische aspecten
van het software-octrooi" [The legal and economic aspects of the software
patent] from the Ministery for Economic Affairs, december 2001.
Quoting and translating (quick'n'dirty) from "3.1.6 Samenvatting" which
summarizes the legal situation:
:De bovenstaande vergelijking laat zien dat zowel in Nederland, Europa (EOB)
:als de VS octrooiering van softwaregerelateerde uitvindingen mogelijk is.
:Daarbij lijkt de Amerikaanse rechter de ruimste toelatingscriteria te
:hanteren. Wanneer een computerprogramma een bruikbaar en concreet resultaat
:oplevert (en nieuw en inventief is), komt het in beginsel voor bescherming
:in aanmerking.
"The previous comparison show that in the Netherlands, Europe (EPO) and in
the USA software related inventions are patentable. In this, American judges
appear to use the broadest cirteria for admissability. When a computer
progrem produces a useful and concrete result (and is new and innovative),
it may in principle be protectable [through a patent]".
:De Nederlandse rechtspraak van Octrooiraad komt in wezen op hetzelfde
:resultaat uit, omdat de bewerking van gegevens beschouwd wordt als het
:aanbrengen van een verandering in de natuur.
"Dutch jurisprudence from the Patent Office essentially has the same result,
as the tooling of data is regarded as bringing about a change in nature".
HTH,
Ray
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