Statements By Third Parties (Amicus Curiae Briefs)
On November 11, 2008, the Enlarged Board of Appeal decided to announce in the Official Journal of the EPO "further provisions concerning statements by third parties on the points of law concerning the patentability of programs for computers referred to it by the President of the European Patent Office". The expected announcement was made in the Official Journal of January 2009. Namely, any written statements, i.e. amicus curiae briefs, had to be filed by the end of April 2009.
Around a hundred amicus curiae briefs have been submitted, including briefs by Accenture, the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), the International Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (AIPPI), Apple Inc., BT, BUSINESSEUROPE, Canonical Group Ltd, the Computer & Communication Industry Association (CCIA), Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA), the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), DIGITALEUROPE, Ericsson, the European Patent Institute (epi), the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (FICPI), France Télécom, IBM, the Irish Free Software Organisation (IFSO), ITechLaw, the Japan Intellectual Property Association (JIPA), Prof. Donald Knuth, Licensing Executives Society International (LESI), Microsoft Corporation and General Electric Company, Philips, the Pirate Party, Pitney Bowes, the Polish Patent Office, Red Hat, SAP, Siemens, Prof. Joseph Straus, the UNION of European Practitioners in Industrial Property, and the United Kingdom.
Read more about this topic: G 3/08
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