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Prof.Dr.N. Pohlmann comments on the election of the patent EP0836787 to be the "software patent of August":

"The future will be mobile! Many, many IT concepts and architectures build on the integration of mobile devices in order to facilitate integrative process chains. That is, by using mobile devices mobile co-workers are integrated into the process chains to increase quality and to save time. And, cellular mobile radio networks such as GSM, GPRS, UMTS, as well as WLAN play an important role, because they are reliable, and because in high bandwidths they facilitate a globally available and established communication. The software patent EP0836787 – Method of transmitting data packets according to a data packet service in a cellular mobile radio network provided for voice and data transfer – points exactly in that direction. The danger of such a software patent is that the interoperability between the involved communication partners is not ensured. The interoperability of communication systems in modern information societies is indispensable for economic growth. Without the transmission of data packets via cellular mobile radio networks we, as a knowledge and information society, would be going back to the Stone Age, something we should prevent under all circumstances."

Prof.Dr.N. Pohlmann is professor at the department of informatics and director of the "Institut für Internet-Sicherheit", both located at the University of Applied Sciences Gelsenkirchen, Germany. His survey on the "Correlation between Interoperability, Patent Protection and Competition" , conducted together with Prof. Dr.iur Andreas Müglich (also University of Applied Sciences Gelsenkirchen) on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour caused a stir in the year 2004.


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