Axel H. Horns discusses the fact that introducing software patents in Europe would harm the European software industry by requiring them to pay large royalties to American patent holders.
It is remarkable that he doesn’t try to conceal or dispute that fact. He completely agrees with FFII that most existing software patents are not held by European companies.
That is in contrast to the usual fairy tale approach we get from the enemies of freedom. Usually they want people to believe that allowing no software patents somehow economically harms the European software industry. Politicians like Arlene McCarthy have been buying this particular propaganda spin, which is based on equating legalizing software patents in Europe and European companies having software patents. Once you realize there is a large difference here, this whole deception falls apart.
Let’s make that clear again: Once we legalize software patents, we can expect large sums of royalties flowing from European to American companies.
However, in Horns’ view, that is not a problem. Selling out the European industry to American interests is necessary, since not doing so would be “protectionism”.
I have some sympathy for that line of reasoning. Actually I don’t like protectionism. For example, I am opposed to the clearly protectionist Articles 4 to 6 in the television directive that require European television stations to broadcast European movies over 50 percent of their scheduled time.
However, the level of patent protection has nothing to do with protectionism. Nobody in this debate calls for discrimination against non-European patent holders.
One could imagine an European patent system that limits patents awarded to non-European companies to 50 percent of all, as in the model of the television directive. This would obviously violate all sorts of international treaties. But yes, that would be protectionism.
But, again, nobody proposes protectionist discrimination.
All we want is that people understand the fact even Horns doesn’t dispute.
Strictly from an economic point of view, Europe would be shooting its own foot by legalizing software patents. Don’t confuse allowing software patents with having them.
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Posted by Karl-Friedrich Lenz at February 13, 2005 10:31 AM