This event will focus on software patents and how to address the problems they create. Developments involving software patents regularly make headline news, and this conference will provide the venue for the Silicon Valley community to discuss what to do about them. Join specialists in the field including EFF Staff Attorney Julie Samuels, UC Berkeley School of Law Professor (and EFF Board Member) Pam Samuelson, and Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman.  Solutions to the Software Patent Problem is a follow-up to the successful Fall 2011 conference, Defense 2.0: New Strategies for Patent Risks.
 
Solutions to the Software Patent Problem
November 16, 2012
Time TBD
Locatelli Center
Santa Clara University

EVENT WEBSITE: https://eff.org/r.a9ex
REGISTER: https://eff.org/r.a8ew

Normally, an academic-oriented conference would debate the merits of software patents. This conference is different. Rather than having another debate, this conference will use a premise--that software patents are a problem--as a springboard for discussing ways to address those problems. In rapid succession, patent experts at the conference will present innovative proposals (ranging from abolishing software patents to company/industry self-help), debate their relative merits, and discuss how they might be implemented. To extend the discussion, many of the speakers and other interested experts will publish short essays in Wired.com describing their proposed solution and advocating for its adoption. We hope conference attendees and Wired.com readers will embrace the best proposals and catalyze real action towards solving the software patent problem.

Santa Clara Law
Santa Clara University
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, California 95053
Phone: (408) 554-5048