NoSoftwarePatents.com Launches Campaign Against Software Patents in the EU

1&1, Red Hat and MySQL AB are corporate partners Web sitestarts in 12 languages

Campaign warns that software patents are used for anti-competitive purposes

Munich, Germany, 20 October 2004, (PROTEXT) - A new campaignagainst software patents in the EU was launched today in 12languages at www.NoSoftwarePatents.com. The campaign is managedby Florian Müller of SWM Software-Marketing GmbH, a softwareindustry veteran with almost 20 years of expertise, and issupported by three corporate partners: 1&1, Red Hat, and MySQLAB. The campaign manager will discuss the issue of softwarepatents with politicians and the media.

"Software patents are used for anti-competitive purposes,stifle innovation, and would cost the entire economy and societydearly", Florian Müller said. "On the bottom line, they createmore injustice than justice. There is only a small group ofpeople in the patent system who would benefit from them, and somelarge American corporations have ulterior motives. "

"We call on everyone especially Web site operators to supportthis campaign. We are now in the decisive stage of thelegislative process."

Software is already protected by copyright law. The EuropeanPatent Convention does not allow patents on software, but tens ofthousands of software patents have been granted in Europe. TheEuropean Union (http://www.europa.eu.int) is currently in alegislative process on a software patent directive. In Septemberof last year, the European Parliament (www.europarl.eu.int)proposed a directive that would do away with software patents.In May of this year, the EU Council (www.consilium.eu.int)announced a political agreement on a directive that wouldestablish a software patent regime similar to that of the UnitedStates. Under that legislation, the only major difference betweenthe U.S. and Europe would be how a patent application ispresented, not what is patentable. The EU Council was widelyexpected to formally adopt that legislative proposal last monthand to refer the matter back to the European Parliament, but theCouncil postponed the decision and could still alter course.Software patents are on the agenda of the German parliament("Bundestag") for tomorrow. Müller pointed out that reputable organizations such asDeutsche Bank Research (http://www.dbresearch.com),PriceWaterhouseCoopers (http://www.pwc.com) and the KielInstitute for World Economics (www.uni-kiel.de/ifw) have alreadywarned of the negative implications of software patents toEurope.

The campaign Web site will provide content in all official EUlanguages. The content is initially available in (alphabetically)Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian,Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish. Moretranslations are in progress.

About the Campaign Partners

The views expressed by the campaign are those of the campaignmanager and not necessarily those of the campaign partners.

1&1 (www.1and1.org) is part of the United Internet group(http://www.unitedinternet.com), a publicly traded Germancompany that projects revenues of EUR 506 million and pre-taxprofits above EUR 80 million this year. United Internet's whollyowned subsidiaries 1&1 and Schlund+Partner(http://www.schlund.de) position the group as one of Europe'slargest Internet presence providers with over 3 millioncustomers and 4.5 million Internet domains. The group alsooperates the GMX (www.gmx.com) E-mail service with 19 millionuser accounts. Red Hat (NASDAQ:RHAT, www.redhat.com) is the world's premierLinux and open source provider, and the most recognized Linuxbrand in the world. With 27 offices worldwide, the companyexpects revenues in its current fiscal year around US$ 200million. For the most recent fiscal quarter, Red Hat reportednet income of US$ 11.8 million on revenue of US$ 46.3 million. MySQL AB (www.mysql.com) of Sweden is Europe's largest opensource software company. The company's flagship product isMySQL, the world's most popular open source database, with morethan 5 million active installations. MySQL AB is privately-held, with approximately EUR 17 million of venture capitalinvested in the company.

Contact Information

Florian Müller SWM Software-Marketing GmbH Starnberg, Germanyphone +49 (8151) 651850 press@nosoftwarepatents.com

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