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So when is an Europe based company actually considered as entering the us market and fall under us patent laws? (edit)The question is about web companies, located outside US but selling to us customers(software,web apps, ebooks ... - digital products).
This whole "Europe could become the new center of the world" sounds like wishful thinking to me. Asia seems a far better bet.
People seem to forget Europe is the largest economy in the world. It has the talent, is mostly developed, with free trade laws and no software patents. The main thing holding Europe back right now is language. With a unified language Europe would be an amazing market to aim for.
Unfortunately, while we have so far kept EU-level legislation legitimising software patents off the books, the price seems to be a continuing lack of consistency in patent rules across Europe. They may not be called software patents, but that doesn't mean there haven't been patents granted in some jurisdictions that you or I might describe in those terms.
Whether any such patents would be enforceable in practice is another question again, but now we’re back to whether you have the stomach to get into a lawsuit over it, and a largely unquantifiable threat to software businesses.
The main thing holding Europe back right now is language.
Well, that and the fact that it’s still relatively difficult to accept money from customers on-line. We’ve been looking into this lately, and in some ways the situation does seem to be improving. However, for whatever reason our payment services market here still seems to be lagging several years behind what is available in some other places, notably the US. To us, this is a far bigger practical problem than any theoretical concerns about software patents.
Why?
Sure, the US is a big place, so if you’re making general purpose software aimed at an English-speaking consumer market then you’d probably want to sell there. On the other hand, in the Internet age, the US is still only one potential market, and depending on your niche other markets might be far larger.
Moreover, the US legal and regulatory environment, including the intellectual property framework, doesn’t appear to be very welcoming. For some professional insurance policies and the like, I’ve even been asked whether my company did business in the US or simply been told outright that work in the US is excluded from cover.
I don’t want to overstate the case, but it would certainly be possible to run a successful global software business, based in Europe or otherwise, without having anything to do with the US at all.
So when is an Europe based company actually considered as entering the us market and fall under us patent laws? (edit)The question is about web companies, located outside US but selling to us customers(software,web apps, ebooks ... - digital products).
Define, what do you think in "entering the us market". Europe based companies can not (even accidentally) fall under US laws. US laws apply only on US soil.
[T]o become a global player in software, success in Europe is not enough: You need to be validated in the US. Why? Sure, the US is a big place, so if you’re making general purpose software aimed at an English-speaking consumer market then you’d probably want to sell there. On the other hand, in the Internet age, the US is still only one potential market, and depending on your niche other markets might be far larger.…
How do you define "global"?
[T]o become a global player in software, success in Europe is not enough: You need to be validated in the US. Why? Sure, the US is a big place, so if you’re making general purpose software aimed at an English-speaking consumer market then you’d probably want to sell there. On the other hand, in the Internet age, the US is still only one potential market, and depending on your niche other markets might be far larger.…
Since you're waiting for someone to ask... How do you define "global"?
I haven’t really thought about where any firm dividing line would fall, and I’m not sure there’s any benefit to having one. I just took exception to the implication that those of us running businesses in Europe were somehow invalid on a global stage without the blessing of the US.
Anyone one know the state of software patents for Canada?
[T]o become a global player in software, success in Europe is not enough: You need to be validated in the US. Why? Sure, the US is a big place, so if you’re making general purpose software aimed at an English-speaking consumer market then you’d probably want to sell there. On the other hand, in the Internet age, the US is still only one potential market, and depending on your niche other markets might be far larger.…
Do you think that, for a Chinese, hearing that software X is the most successful in the USA is the same as hearing that it is the most successful in the EU? I don't think so (whatever I could like to think).
This whole "Europe could become the new center of the world" sounds like wishful thinking to me. Asia seems a far better bet.
People seem to forget Europe is the largest economy in the world. It has the talent, is mostly developed, with free trade laws and no software patents. The main thing holding Europe back right now is language. With a unified language Europe would be an amazing market to aim for.