Adam Borowski wrote: > On Mon, Aug 21, 2006 at 08:14:04AM +0200, Arnoud Engelfriet wrote: > > Of course. The German Supreme Court however has the same > > interpretation of "software as such" as the European Patent Office. > > This means that they completely disrespect Article 52 [1]. However, their > intepretation is a minority.
The German Supreme Court is the final instance for interpreting patent law in Germany. So at least they're a powerful minority. I'm not going to redo the whole debate here; I just tried to explain why someone called Germany a rogue country even though its patent law is an almost-literal copy of the EPC. > After the last attempt to legislate a "Common Position" failed (July 2005), > there is no EU-wide law that would enforce software patents, although > particular member countries are free to enact such laws. In other words, > interpretation differs on a country-by-country base. Unless I'm missing > something, it's only Germany and the UK who put EPO over the EPC. There's very little case law in other countries. The UK and Germany are where you'd go to litigate a European patent(*). > Also, there is no such thing as an "European patent". Your explanation is correct, however we can still call them 'European patents', because EPC article 2(1) says: "Patents granted by virtue of this Convention shall be called European patents." Arnoud -- Arnoud Engelfriet, Dutch & European patent attorney - Speaking only for myself Patents, copyright and IPR explained for techies: http://www.iusmentis.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
