Subject: Invitation to The National Public Meeting on Software Patents

On behalf of the organizers,
Free Software Users Group- Bangalore
cordially invites you to

The National Public Meeting on Software Patents

==Venue==

2nd Floor, Ecumenical Resource Centre,
United Theological College,
Millers Road, Benson Town.
(Behind Cantonment Railway Station)
Bangalore–560046

==Time==

10:00–17:00
Saturday, October 4, 2008

Software patents in India occupy a contentious and indeterminate legal
space. While recent amendments to the Patent Act have sought to bring
our law in conformity with WTO-mandated standards, these amendments have
shied from pronouncing conclusively on the patentability of software.
The result is an equivocation in the law which is being wrestled
aggressively and effectively by corporate interests, patent attorneys
and the Patent Office in favour of granting software patents. Unheard,
and so unrepresented in this powerful triad are the interests of
millions of citizen-consumers who are either presumed too ignorant to be
credited with a view on the issue, or are presumed to be irrelevant to
the determination of issues which are seen as purely "business" matters
(as opposed to "citizen" matters).

Software is everywhere you look (and many places you never think
of looking). With the explosion of low-cost computing devices (think
mobile phones and iPods), software has leaked out of its traditional
home—the PC—and begun infiltrating various aspects of our lives. From
traffic signals to toilet commodes in some countries, refrigerators to
railway tickets, vacuum cleaners and electronic voting machines, TVs,
refrigerators and electronic pacemakers, inanimate objects of all sizes
are humming to themselves, chattering amongst themselves in an
intricate, highly complex tongue called 'software' that few of us can
ever hope to understand. On the impulses of software, we stop or move on
streets, fill up on petrol, and elect governments. Someone's heart
beats. Someone else receives land records on a village kiosk. Someone is
standing by helplessly for fourteen years (the un-evergreened term of a
patent) because software failed to factor in her disability.

There are big stakes involved in the control of software in an era
when software is becoming increasingly central to the way we humans
organize our lives and inhabit a democracy. At one level this is about
preserving the right of agency and self-direction that citizens have in
their own lives. At another, it is about the right not to be silenced
when our long-fought democratic republic is at risk of being diminished
by a few lines of software in a machine. Whether or not we are all in
fact capable of deciphering software is inessential. Those of us who are
ought not to be denied the freedom to interrogate, tinker and improve.

Patents have the effect of adding an additional layer of 'protection'
to already existing copyright protection of software, while
simultaneously overriding the various affordances and safeguards built
into copyright law. For instance, the right of "fair dealing" under
copyright law permits users to examine and modify any software in order
to make it interoperable with other software. This is an extremely
potent right that reasserts our right to intervene in the shaping of our
surroundings. It is also one of the rights that is most imperiled by
software patents.

The present "public hearing" on software patents is an invitation
for dialogue on the various issue surrounding software patents.
Although the Patent Office had scheduled a public consultation on its
Draft Patent Manual to be held in Bangalore in August this year, that
meeting was abruptly cancelled (or postponed indefinitely, or to an
unannounced date—we can't be sure) without any reasons having been
assigned by the Patent Office. This signals either of two unpleasant
scenarios: first, the Patent Office is proceeding with its consultations
in an extremely mechanical fashion, not intending inputs received in the
course of these consultations to qualitatively impact their functioning
in any way; or secondly, perhaps the Patent Office underestimates the
amount that citizens living in the IT capital of India might have to say
on the subject of software patents.

It is our attempt in this public hearing to organize the kind of
consultation that the Indian Patent Office ought to have conducted. We
hope also hereby, to serve as a gentle but firm reminder to the Patent
Office that its task is as yet undone.

==Agenda==

1000–1100
Presentation on the principles of patent law and
software patents

Sudhir Krishnaswamy
(National Law School)

Prabir Purkayastha
(Delhi Science Forum)

Nagarjuna G.
(Free Software Foundation of India)

1100–1130
Discussion on software patents in the Indian context:
Indian Patent Act, and the draft patent manual

Prashant Iyengar
(Alternative Law Forum)

Venkatesh Hariharan
(Red Hat)

1130–1150
Tea break

1150–1240
Discussion on patents and the development sector
(freedom of speech, open standards, healthcare, biotech, agro-sector,
etc.)

Sunil Abraham
(Centre for Internet and Society)

Anivar Aravind
(Movingrepublic, FSUG-Bangalore)

Others

1240–1300
Presentation on the software patents that have been
granted so far in India

Pranesh Prakash
(Centre for Internet and Society)

1300–1400
Lunch break

1400–1700
Open House

T. Ramakrishna
(National Law School)

Abhas Abhinav
(DeepRoot Linux)

Joseph Mathew
(Special It advisor, Govt of Kerala)

Sreekanth S. Rameshaiah
(Mahiti Infotech)

Vinay Sreenivasa
(IT for Change)

Any others who wish to speak

==Organizers==

Centre for Internet and Society; Free Software Users Group-Bangalore;
Free Software Foundation of India; SPACE; IT for Change; Alternative
Law Forum; Delhi Science Forum; Movingrepublic; Sarai/CSDS; OpenSpace,
; Swathanthra Malayalam Computing; Servelots - Janastu; Mahiti; DeepRoot
Linux; Wiki Ocean; Turtle Linux Lab; Zyxware Technologies; INSAF; Aneka

Anivar Aravind
+91 9449009908

Software patents have always been very contentious. The issue has cropped up again recently in India as the Patent Manual that is being prepared by the Indian Patent Office has guidelines on the Patent Office's understanding of section 3(k) of the Indian Patents Act, and the patentability of software. The Patent Office has been having a series of stakeholder meetings related to the Patent Manual, in which the issue of software patents has been raised by various interested parties. Given the large opposition to the Patent Manual's reading of the Indian Patent Act, the Patent Office has promised to hold a public meeting solely on software patents. However, the date and location of the consultation hasn't been announced yet. We, a loose group of civil society organisations interested in the issue of software patents, believe that a public meeting (and not just an invitees only "industry consultation") on the issue of software patents will help gather together viewpoints which will be invaluable to the Patent Office.

Tentative agenda and plan is available at http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Say_No_To_Software_Patents/National_Public_Meeting

Here is the draft agenda:

1. Presentation on the principles of patent law and software patents | Nagarjuna G. (Free Software Foundation of India) and Prabir Purkayastha (Delhi Science Forum)
2. Discussion on software patents in the Indian context: Indian Patent Act, and the draft patent manual | Prashant Iyengar (Alternative Law Forum), Venkatesh Hariharan (Red Hat), and Sudhir Krishnaswamy (National Law School)
3. Discussion on patents and the development sector (freedom of speech, open standards, healthcare, biotech, agro-sector, etc.) | Sunil Abraham (Centre for Internet and Society), Anivar Aravind (Moving Republic), and others
4. Presentation on software patents that have been granted in India | Pranesh Prakash (Centre for Internet and Society)
5. Open house on software patents | People speaking will include: T. Ramakrishna (National Law School), Abhas Abhinav (DeepRoot Linux), Sreekanth S. Rameshaiah (Mahiti Infotech), Vinay Sreenivasa (IT for Change), any others who wish to speak

In 2005, the Indian parliament rejected the Nat ordinance, which would have legalised software patents in India.