Tigrou - 1:42 pm on Jul 12, 2005 (gmt 0)

Heh, true about the MS quote.

Have a little story for you.

I own half a company in EU. Basically we have a search related software relevant to the lobbyist field. We of course didn't take a patent in the EU. I moved to US for 1.5 years (for unrelated matters)and had to get a Visa. To do that I had to setup an american division of that specific company. The lawyers would NOT let me talk about the VISA nor the company until we had a painful hour conversation on patents.

In Europe, we just don't get into detail and we know that no one will try to copy as they can't really copy our idea for now - our behind the scenes is not likely to be copied. Even if someone did, I'd prefer to spend the energy on competing on the strenghts of our ideas and marketing.

In the US we'd have had to give away our secrets and CREATE competition. Then lose anyway if someone with a big lawyer got behind it. Strenght of patent = $ in lawyers that you can spend.

So yeah, I agree that the present EU setup has it hands down on USA for us little guys. But that's because of a lower tolerance for IP lawyers though, not due to the law.

Without the patent we do have to be uber careful how much we talk about back end (or else give up rights). I still think that the EU would have been better with the law, but can't be "£$£ to argue it in detail :-)