From robin@xxxxxxx.xxx.xxx Thu Jun 10 09:20:41 1999
X-Digest-Num: 163
Message-ID: <44114.163.959.959273824@eGroups.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 19:20:41 +0300
From: Robin Turner <robin@xxxxxxx.xxx.xxx
Subject: Re: lobbying for Lojban the European Patent Office

PILCH Hartmut wrote:

> I am currently very actively lobbying the EU patent organisations because
> of the imminent danger of patentability of programming concepts (so called
> "software patents"), which the EU commission is trying to change the
> European Patent Convention (EPC) so as to introduce for all of Europe this
> year. A multilingual public petition letter at
>
> http://swpat.ffii.org/miert/
>
> has already been signed by 500 people.
>
> I have, as part of my lobby work, proposed the introduction of Lojban as
> an auxiliary language for patent descriptions. People at the EPO I spoke
> to were quite interested.
>
> The EU is planning measures to make life easier for their customers,
> i.e. mainly big corporations who own a lot of patents.
>
> My goals are:
>
> - no change to the Munich convention, i.e. no patentability of
> non-industrial concepts such as software solutions
> - no cuts of translation costs, but, where acceptable to the EPC
> countries, allow a submission of a text in a logical language, which
> can be automatically translated to, for example. Logician's Portuguese.
> - cut examination and research costs by putting all data in the internet
> under an Open Content license and opening a free market for patent
> research
>
> What do you think?

Sounds good. The issue of algorithm patenting came up in a meeting here
(Ankara) addressed by Richard Stallman. Some people at the Free Software
Foundation are lobbying on this issue - maybe you're already in touch with
them. AFAIK, algorithm patenting is already possible in the USA.
{.oiro'e.u'i} the idea strikes me as utterly ludicrous - you could extend it
to the whole of academia, so that, for instance, whenever I wanted to use one
of George Lakoff's metaphors in analysing a text, I would not only have to
cite him, but also pay him royalties.

As for your lobbying for Lojban, this is excellent. What Lojban needs most in
the near future is to be put to practical uses by people who have other
motivations for using Lojban than simply liking the language.

co'o mi'e robin.