Union Leaders Cite Need for Patent Fixes
An international coalition of patent examiners' unions--including representatives from the U.S., Europe, Canada, Germany, and Austria--signed and delivered a joint letter to their respective government agency leaders urging serious measures to maintain meaningful protection of intellectual property. The letter warned that pressures on examiners have threatened the patent examination system and outlined measures to stem a decline in patent quality. The letter can be found here in EN, FR, DE and was handed with a cover letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel whilst visiting the EPO in Munich on 18 April 2007.
Some of the many press reports and comments sparked by this letter can be found as follows:
Frankfurter Rundschau: Patentprüfer schlagen Alarm (19/4/07).
Digital majority: The Examiners are Revolting (18/04/07).
Greg Aharonian, Internet Patent News Service: Global protest of PTO/EPO/GPO patent examiners (17/04/07).
IPKat: Open Letter From a Coalition of Patent Examiner Representatives (17/04/07).
Linux Magazin: Patentschützer warnen vor Kollaps des Patentsystems (17/04/07).
Heise: Patentprüfer sehen Patentsystem gefährdet (16/4/07).
BLOG@IP::JUR: POPA on Crisis of Patent System. (16/04/07).