Ciarán O'Riordan

The European Commission’s Open Source Observatory (OSOR) Team will present the Interoperable Europe Act (IEA) and its implications for the free and open source software ecosystem. The text, which the European Commission adopted as a proposal in November 2022, aims to reinforce the cross-border interoperability of the public sector in the EU. Practically, it aims to facilitate “the co-creation of an ecosystem of interoperability solutions across the EU”.

To achieve this, the regulation sets up a two-layer governance structure (the Interoperable Europe Board and the Interoperable Europe Community), with both entities expected to work closely with open source experts, institutions and companies.

This session will in particular dig into the mechanisms meant to enable the sharing and reuse of interoperability solutions between public administrations.

The OSOR Team will present the measures of the proposed Act that support the sharing and reuse of software and cross-border interoperable solutions, such as

The two-layer governance structure—the Interoperable Europe Board and the Interoperable Europe Community—with both entities expected to work closely with open source experts, institutions and companies.
Interoperable Europe Agenda: the strategy for the coordination of public investments in interoperability solutions. Interoperable Europe Portal: Single point of entry for information related to cross-border interoperability, Interoperable Europe solutions and interoperability solutions provided for by other EU policies. Interoperability Assessment: Obligatory when creating or modifying IT systems for public services with cross-border aspects. The content of the assessment will be adopted by the IE Board. Regulatory Sandboxes: Controlled environment for the development of interoperable solutions.

After the presentation, the audience is invited to discuss the new EU proposal with the OSOR Team, as well as how the European open source ecosystem can support this policy effort as members of the Interoperable Europe Community

Please note that this talk was originally scheduled to be given at 11.50 but starts earlier to cover for cancellations of other talks just before the schedule freeze.

In early 2023, the European Commission will publish its proposal for a regulation on Standard-Essential Patents (SEPs) to address issues of legal uncertainty, the vulnerability of SMEs, and transaction costs. This regulation could bring some peace of mind, or it could make matters worse. While software patents are not enforced by courts in Europe, the European patent offices continue to grant software patents. And with the Unified Patent Court (UPC) possibly coming in 2023, European software developers are not safe from patent uncertainty.

In this presentation we will outline the European Commission's motivations, the input they're working from and the solutions they're considering. The Commission mentions FRAND licensing terms among the solutions, but, is it thinking of a type of FRAND licensing that truly doesn't discriminate against free software? We will discuss definitions for FRAND which could give real protections for free software and we will look into precedents which could be used as a basis for protecting the use, development and distribution of software against patents. Since the Commission's preparatory documents state "legal certainty" as one of the main objectives for this regulation, and knowing that software developers would like to be free from the current legal uncertainty around patents, we might be able to find a basis for agreement on a solution. If the EU institutions are serious about being fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory, and if they're serious about standards and interoperability, this could be our chance to get a regulation which ensures that patents never block free software from abiding by standards.

This regulation will affect a large number of fields, including many fields where innovation is measured in how many patents were obtained this year. Software risks being collateral damage in a bigger tug-o-war between industrial sectors.

Ciarán O'Riordan, Senior Policy Advisor, OpenForum Europe

Panos Alevropoulos, Administrator, End Software Patents

Other people: Panos Alevropoulos

Discussion on issues of Free Software with Software Patents

Other people: Benjamin Henrion Deb Nicholson Karen Sandler