[Ecommerce] Poland postpones once again sw patents in the EU

[Pedro de Paranaguá Moniz]

http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=314

WITH YET ANOTHER COUNCIL DELAY,
JURI IS STILL OUT ON SOFTWARE PATENTS

/Poland requests another delay of the adoption of the EU Council's
common position on a software patent directive -- JURI (legal affairs
committee of the European Parliament) may ask for restart of entire
legislative process next week/

Brussels (24 January 2005). At the request of Poland, the EU Council
once again postponed the adoption of a so-called common position on a
software patent directive, which had been planned for today. That new
delay opens a window of opportunity for JURI, the legal affairs
committee of the European Parliament, to restart the hotly contested
legislative process. JURI will meet in Brussels on Wednesday and
Thursday of next week (February 2nd and 3rd), and will decide on
requesting a restart of the entire legislative process. According to
anti-software-patent campaigners, there is a good chance that a majority
of JURI members will vote for a restart, and support is said to be
broadening.

Florian Müller, campaign manager of NoSoftwarePatents.com, calls on
supporters to contact their MEPs and "launch an all-out offensive for
the restart because it is by far and away the best chance to prevent the
legalization of software patents in the EU. In fact, it may be our only
realistic chance. This is the moment of truth."

The NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign published a "restart lobbying guide"
that tells citizens how they can influence the upcoming JURI decision:
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/docs/050124guide.pdf

If the EU Council had gone ahead with its original plan, the window for
a restart under Rule 55 of the EP's Rules of Procedure would have closed
during a "mini-plenary" session of the EP this week. The EP can request
a restart until the Council's "common position" is announced by the
president of the EP. Under Rule 57 of the EP's Rules of Procedure, such
announcement must take place in a plenary session. The next Council
meeting after today will be on Monday, 31 January, and even if the
Council finally adopted its position then, there would be no more
plenary session in the EP until the week of 21 February.

If JURI calls for a restart, the consent of the Conference of Presidents
of the EP may additionally be required on 17 February. In the CoP, the
chairpersons of the parliamentary groups are represented and vote by
group size. After a favorable JURI decision, no plenary vote would be
required. However, many MEPs believe that the plenary could
alternatively take the decision if JURI failed to do so. A motion to
that effect was signed by 61 MEPs from 13 different countries in
December, among them three vice presidents of the EP.

NoSoftwarePatents.com also thanked the Polish government for its second
intervention in the Council process. Tens of thousands of people from
all over the world have already expressed their gratitude to Poland on
Web site http://thankpoland.info <http://thankpoland.info/> after a
member of the Polish cabinet personally flew to Brussels on 21 December
to request that the software patent directive be removed from the agenda.

Last week, the mayor of Munich and a vocal opponent of software patents,
publicly declared that he would consider a restart of the process a very
desirable option:
http://www.muenchen.de/Rathaus/dir/limux/119480/limux18012005.html

The city administration of Munich made headline news with its Linux
migration project, which was temporarily suspended last summer over
patent-related concerns.

*UK MEPs on JURI Committee*

The UK has two full members in JURI, and two substitutes. The full
members are Theresa Villiers of the Conservatives, and Diana Wallis of
the Liberal Democrats. The two substitutes, Arlene McCarthy (Labour) and
Malcolm Harbour (Tories), already formed a pro-patent duo in the EP's
first reading on the directive.

According to NoSoftwarePatents.com's Florian Müller, "we'll be lucky if
even one British MEP supports the restart in JURI. It would be the best
for almost every UK company that produces or uses software, but an MEP
like Malcolm Harbour is much closer to some non-British large
corporations than to his own electorate." He recommended to UK voters to
primarily contact London's MEP Theresa Villiers because "her voting
record shows that she took a moderate position in the 1st reading
compared to most other Tories". In NoSoftwarePatent.com's lobbying
guide, voters are cautioned that Graham Watson, leader of the Liberal
Democrats in the EP, is rumored to have been persuaded by Microsoft to
oppose a restart of the process.


*LOBBYING GUIDE FOR RESTARTING THE EU's LEGISLATIVE PROCESS ON THE
SOFTWARE PATENT DIRECTIVE*

(Florian Müller, NoSoftwarePatents.com, 24 January 2005)

http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/docs/050124guide.pdf

******************************

Pedro de Paranaguá Moniz

Masters in Law (LL.M.) candidate, class of 2004/2005
Queen Mary, University of London