The European Commission is organising a conference dedicated to "Make IPR work for SMEs" next Monday in Brussels. You can submit your questions by email to me for next Monday on how to "Make software patents work for SMEs". I might be interested to submit them.

Here is the mail sent to participants:

from ue.aporue.ce|FNOC-RPI-TSEB-RTNE#ue.aporue.ce|FNOC-RPI-TSEB-RTNE
date Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 1:11 PM
subject Welcome to the Conference Making IPR work for SMEs

Dear Conference Registrant,

We look forward to welcoming you on next Monday, 27 April 2009, to the conference "Making IPR work for SMEs".

Attached please find form which you can use to submit questions to the conference speakers. These forms will be collected periodically in the conference room, so please feel free to prepare questions now and during the conference.

«Template for Questions to the Panels 220409.doc»

For any further details, including the up to date programme of the conference, please see the conference website:
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/enterprise_policy/industry/ipr_conference.htm

Best regards,

The Conference Team

European Commission
Enterprise Directorate General
Industrial Policy and Economic Reforms Directorate
Development of Industrial Policy Unit
Tel. : + 32 (0)2-29.53611
Fax. : + 32 (0)2-29.98020
mail: ue.aporue.ce|FNOC-RPI-TSEB-RTNE#ue.aporue.ce|FNOC-RPI-TSEB-RTNE

Here is the form:

Conference Making IPR work for SMEs
Brussels, Monday, 27 April 2009
Venue: Charlemagne Building (Salle Alcide de Gasperi), 170 Rue de la Loi (Wetstraat)

First Name:
Last Name:
From (City/Country):
Working for/Interested in/Affiliated to/
E-mail Address:
My Question is:
I want to put my question to (name(s) of speaker(s) or panellist(s)):

The conference might be biaised in favour of patent holders who needs more tools to enforce their software patents:

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) can be a vital competitive advantage for small and medium sized European businesses. Their competitiveness, creativity and innovative abilities are threatened by counterfeiting, piracy and uncertainty about enforcing their rights.

Small and medium enterprises are particularly vulnerable to these risks. They often lack resources and knowledge to act against fake products or are convinced it is impossible to do so.

This kind of conference remembers me the intervention of a guy in the audience at a patent conference organised by CGPME, where he said that the patent system was a burden for SMEs (too hard to navigate, SMEs don't understand it).

In the context of the Small Business Act, you will find nothing about those problems, because the patent lobby managed to put some bits in there in order to favour the applicant. They fail to mention the burden on all those companies that have to deviate a significant part of their R&D budget in order to comply with the claims of others.