President Prof. Hartmut FUESS . Darmstadt-University of Technology
D-64287 Darmstadt Germany 

It has come to the attention of the European Crystallographic Community
that the European Parliament is about to legalize patents on software
and algorithms, which would be extremely harmful to scientific research
and innovation. 

The legalization of patents on software and algorithms (fundamental
parts of programs) could allow any person or company to "lock" whole new
techniques. Patenting software is equivalent to patenting ideas, which
can be used in a variety of applications. This would be especially
harmful to the scientific community where most innovations have depended
on collaborative projects and the diffusion of algorithms. 

The situations between "heavy" industries and the software industry are
very different. For instance in drug research, few pharmaceutical
industries are producing new products with development cycles which can
take up to 10 years, with many researchers involved. These enterprises
must be defended through patents to encourage the publication of new
inventions. On the other hand, there are more than a million software
developers, contributing to new major inventions every few months.
Software innovation traditionally depends on diversity of effort from
many contributors, and is not driven by developments from a protected
few. 

As this new legislation would only stifle innovation and prevent new
research on algorithms from both academic researchers and small and
medium enterprises, we believe that software should continue to he
protected by copyright laws alone, in the spirit of the Munich
convention, which excludes "discoveries, scientific theories,
mathematical methods and computer programs" from patent application. 


[Signed Hartmut Fuess]

August 28th 2003 

The European Crystallographic Association represents the interests of
more than 4000 crystallographers (both academics and industrialists) in
Europe. Crystallography underpins chemistry, mineralogy, pharmaceutical
research and many other fields. 

Contact person: Eleanor Dodson E.Dodson@ysbl.york.ac.uk