[pp.int.general] Fwd: World Day Against Software Patents (24September): Call now open for signatures

[Reinier Bakels]

> Hey, I don't know if you guys have heard about it, but the EPO has
> been on strike to denounce patent abuses:
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/25/epo_staff_strike/

The striking point of this strike is that EPO Staff is under pressure to 
deliver as many patents as possible because of the fees - and probably the 
EPO is under pression from the national patent offfices, who get a share of 
the "revenue" (and who sit on its administrative council), and need the 
money.

The mistake is that EPO *and* national patent offices are directly funded 
from the triffs they charge to the patent owners. While this is official (as 
agreed in the EPC), it is crazy: a government authority should never be 
directly dependent on the money they "make". Unfortunately the US is the bad 
example: they did it correctly, but converted to a system similar to the 
European system in the early 1990s.

reinier