[ILUG] Second chance [Fwd: [ffii] FFII requests, gets consultation extension from EU Commission]

[Paul O'Malley]

Hi,

If you missed the original deadline you get another chance.

Regards,

Paul O'Malley


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[ffii] FFII requests, gets consultation extension from EU 
Commission
Date: 	Wed, 05 Apr 2006 10:19:32 +0200
From: 	Jonas Maebe <jmaebe at ffii.org>
To: 	news at ffii.org



PRESS RELEASE -- [ Europe / Economy / ICT ]

=========================================================================
FFII requests, gets consultation extension from EU Commission
=========================================================================

Brussels (4th April 2006) - Following a formal complaint by the FFII
to the EU Commission's President Barroso, and meetings between the
FFII and the Commission, the Commission has agreed to extend its
deadline from 31 March 2006 to 12 April 2006.

In a meeting with the Commission on 17th March, the FFII requested an
extension. "The original deadline was impossible to meet", said Pieter
Hintjens, President of the FFII. "We spoke to many firms that were
still preparing their response at the stroke of midnight on 31 March.
The Commission has not answered all of our complaints, but this
extension is welcome and helpful."

The Commission has published the extension on their website, saying
that "this deadline determines which replies will be taken into
account for the hearing on 13 June 2006."  Later replies may still be
considered.

The FFII and other organisations, including large software producers
such as SAP, view the consultation procedure (which covers the
Community Patent EU project and the European Patent Litigation
Agreement EPO project) as the third attempt to introduce software
patents into Europe.

Hintjens: "We told the Commission clearly: the Community Patent and
EPLA do raise the spectre of software patents, and this must be
discussed, not slipped under the table.  Furthermore, the EPO is a
large part of the problem and we want to see reform of this
institution.  Software patents introduce dangerous and anti-innovation
monopolies, are bad for business, and are demonstrably irrelevant to a
sector that has innovated for five decades without them."

The FFII is calling on businesses and organisations to endorse its own
response to the Commission, which will be handed in the day before the
new deadline.  Peter Gerwinski of the FFII: "Print out the page, sign
it, and fax it back to us.  We will collect the signatures into one
document that we will hand over personally to the Commission.   We
previously did something similar for the Call for Action III during the
second reading of the software patents directive and it made a great
impact."

The form to participate in this action is available at
http://patinfo.ffii.org/faxcollect.en.html


=========================================================================
Background Information
=========================================================================

* Participation form
http://patinfo.ffii.org/faxcollect.en.html

* Commission consultation website (mentions extension)
http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/indprop/patent/consultation_en.htm

* FFII consultation websites:
 * English: http://consultation.ffii.org
 * French http://consultation.ffii.fr/
 * Dutch http://www.ffii.be/gemeenschapsoctrooi

* FFII call for participation
http://wiki.ffii.org/Compat060322En

* Flaws in the consultation procedure
http://consultation.ffii.org/Press_Release

* Permanent link to this press release
http://wiki.ffii.org/Compat060404En


=========================================================================
Contact Information
=========================================================================

Benjamin Henrion
FFII Brussels
+32-2-4148403
bhenrion at ffii.org
(French/English)


=========================================================================
About the FFII -- http://www.ffii.org
=========================================================================

About the FFII: the Foundation for Free Information Infrastructure is
a Munich-based association that fights for competition in the IT
sector, based on copyright, open standards, and open markets.  The
FFII has fought software patents for six years, led by its founder
Hartmut Pilch, on the grounds that these create private monopolies
that work against innovation.  The FFII is funded by donations and
membership fees and counts activists and members in over 20 countries.



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