[Commons-Law] South African Patent Challenge - Progress Report

[Sunil Abraham]

Dear Friends,

Some interesting news from South Africa fwded from the Idlelo mailing
list.

Thanks,

Sunil

-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: Bob Joliffe <jollirm at unisa.ac.za>
Subject: [idlelo] South African patent challenge - progress report
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 10:08:56 +0200

I am sending you this message either because you have corresponded with 
me previously regarding the patent challenge, or you have been 
recommended as a possible interested party.  If you have no interest 
please ignore this message and I will not "spam" you any more.

On 28 June I wrote a letter to Spoor&Fisher, patent attorneys for 
Microsoft in SA, requesting they ask their client to voluntarily 
surrender patent number 2003/03346.  This patent refers to working with 
word-processor files in an xml format, described by an xsd file.  
Electronic access to our own patent office records is difficult (except 
perhaps if you work for Spoor&Fisher) but you can look at the claims 
from the EU equivalent at:

http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=ZA200303346&F=0&QPN=ZA200303346.

A brief summary of how events have been unfolding:

Last Friday the Linux Professionals Association of SA held a special
meeting to discuss the issue.  Myself and Nhlanhla Mabaso (of Meraka)
were also present at the meeting.  Ashraf Patel of the OSI was also
there in spirit.

The meeting resolved the following:
>
> 1) the LPA will be primary complainants if we go to court
> 2) a mailing list/web site was set up - I am still trying to get details
> this morning
> 3) a first priority is to secure the services of a patent attorney.  I
> am trying to get someone at UNISA involved (Prof Tana Pistorius -
> internationally renowned expert on patents et al), failing which we will
> make use of LPA contacts.  Only then will we be able to come up with an
> estimate of costs.
> 4) we will take the "safe route" of attacking this patent on its lack of
> inventive step and the availability of prior art, rather than the
> politically more significant (but riskier) grounds of it being a pure
> information/software patent.  No need to win the war in one step.
> As soon as I get hold of details of the website and mailing list, I'll
> distribute them.
>
> I have just received email from MS attorneys, requesting more detail of
> the grounds on which we are challenging the patent. This is good news -
> they haven't dismissed the challenge out of hand.  Probably MS are also
> aware of the NZ action by now and (hopefully) are getting agitated.  I
> haven't replied yet - I am trying to clarify our legal representation
> first, as well as running my reply by the LPA.  Don't want to delay too
> much as this is probably what they will try to do.
>
> My feeling thus far is that MS is going to voluntarily surrender this
> one, in which case there will not be significant costs involved (besides
> my spiralling cellphone ...).  If they don't, we will have to go
> begging, but as I said earlier, it is hard to thumbsuck figures before
> getting a patent attorney involved.  We might well turn to yourselves
> and others for some assistance if it comes to this.
>
> During the meeting Nhlanhla was sms'ing HP and Novell regarding their
> own patent portfolios in the SA office.  Gave rise to an interesting
> idea.  We should really draft a letter to all the major players
> (including MS), requesting they each examine their own patent portfolios
> and voluntarily surrender any software patents they have lodged in our
> office.  Maybe Nhlx will be best placed to go with this one.
>
> Meanwhile, while I was away I see that the EU directive has been crushed
> with a thumping majority.  This is great news - I must confess to having
> been pessimistic of the outcome.  Coupled with the G8's focus on African
> debt relief (albeit with a steadfast refusal to discuss trade issues),
> the environment is looking more and more conducive for significant action.


The main reason for this communication is to announce that the good 
people at obsidian (thanks Charles) have set up a mailing list so we can 
add some structure to this communication.  If you are interested to be 
part of the list, please go to

http://no-software-patents.org.za/mailman/listinfo/discuss

and sign up.  In future I will be communicating as much as possible via 
the list.  The web site will be up soon.  There is an urgent need to 
open up this issue to public debate and scrutiny.  There is also a lot 
of work to be done, not so much in fighting this particular patent, but 
in identifying similar patents filed in our system and formulating 
strategies to halt the flow.  There is also the significant challenge of 
removing this legal barbed wire from the continent.  Does anyone have 
any idea how to search the two main African regional patent clearing 
houses (ARIPO and OAPI)?  This would be a good start in identifying the 
extent of the challenge and formulating a pan-African response.

Please join the mailing list and help build on the success in Europe.  
The stakes in developing countries are considerably higher than in 
Europe, yet the civil society reponse has so far been muted.

Bob

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-- 
Sunil Abraham, sunil at mahiti.org http://www.mahiti.org
314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA
Ph/Fax: +91 80 51150580. Mob: (91) 9342201521
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