iMatix Corporation

Advocacy

The Organisation for Digital Standards

 The Digital Standards Organisation, founded in 2007 to advance the knowledge of and application of open standards in the IT industry, receives support from iMatix.

Foundation for Free Software (FSF)

 Along open companies like MySQL, Google, and Cisco, iMatix is a corporate supporter of the FSF.

Free Information Infrastructure Foundation (FFII)

 Past President of the FFII is Pieter Hintjens, CEO of iMatix. A nonprofit organisation called the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is committed to removing obstacles to competition in order to create a free market in information technology. In July 2005, the EU software patent directive was substantially defeated thanks to the FFII’s collaborative efforts with the European Parliament and several business and civil society allies. The FFII received the Outstanding contribution to software development award from CNET for its efforts, which were the result of numerous years of study, policy creation, and implementation.

It’s crucial to advocate for issues like open standards, copyright, and software patents in order to keep the software industry open to small businesses like iMatix. We defend more than just our right to compete in a free and fair market as a software seller. We also work to protect our clients’ freedom of choice among vendors based on quality and cost rather than vendor lock-in.

 Software patents are state-backed market distortions that are against the European Patent Convention but are nonetheless widely awarded by the European Patent Office. There is a lot of pressure from anti-competitive forces to utilise software patents to stifle free and fair competition, from monopolists like Microsoft to cartels in telecom and multimedia. The biggest threat to inventions like AMQP, in which iMatix and many other companies have made significant investments, is posed by software patents.

 Therefore, we actively participate in influencing policymakers and changing the current patent system for the better.