Slightly longer English letter from CEO to colleague
Subject: patent lobby pleading in our name, punishment in May
Dear Colleague,
In the European Parliament these weeks a grave decision is being taken, and the situation doesn't look good.
As you can see from the detailed reports at FFII.org, a few large companies have succeded in creating an impression among parliamentarians that the whole industry wants software patents.
Entrepreneurs like you and me, who really form the large majority, are being condemned in absence to a hefty punishment. I mean it literally. Have you studied which of the 30-50,000 patents under the discussion you are infringing? Then you'd better do so soon, otherwise you'll be liable to penal sanctions for negligence. A professional patent search costs about 30,000 eur, litigation can easily go into the millions.
There is still a chance to invest the money better: Support the FFII which is leading the nosoftwarepatents.com campaign and coordinating the lobbying work of our side.
Please sign up at
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely
Håkon Wium Lie, Opera.com
Kaj Arnö, MySQL.com
Peter Hientjens, Imatix.com
Marco Schulze, Nightlabs.com
Hauke Duden, AShampoo.com