[Ecommerce] Software patent directive back in motion

[Michelle Childs]

>From the Register.com
Software patent directive back in motion
By Lucy Sherriff
Published Monday 25th April 2005 12:11 GMT
The European Parliament re-opened the debate on the future of the EU's
directive on software patents, last week. Arguments for and against the
bill took the lines we have come to expect from each side: the pro-patent
lobby arguing that the directive merely formalises the status quo, and the
anti-patent contingent arguing that patenting software is like trying to
patent music or mathematics.

According to Florian Muller, ex-head of anti-patent group No Software
Patents, told us: "The first debate in the Legal Affairs Committee on
Thursday showed that the official rapporteur on this directive, Michel
Rocard MEP (a former prime minister of France), and various other MEPs
really want to help and restrict the scope of patentability but they face
stiff opposition."

When the original draft of the directive went to Parliament for its first
reading in 2003, MEPs made several significant changes to the text. They
limited the scope of what could be patented to software that supported new
physical processes, such as steel-making, or a new anti-lock braking
system.

However, the Council of Ministers, under the Irish presidency, voted to
reject these changes, and returned the draft almost to its original form.
Critics say the current for of the directive allows for direct software
patentability of computer programs, data structures and process
descriptions, areas the MEPs had voted off the agenda.

In last week's debate, Irish MEP Brian Crowley was among those opposing
any amendments to the council's text, arguing that smaller companies
benefit as much as larger ones. He said that in the US, 92 per cent of
patents have been granted to SMEs. Germany's Erika Mann said that the
Parliament needs to be flexible, and stressed that there are some good
articles within the directive as it stands.

Finnish MEP Piia-Noora Kauppi agreed that the Parliament should not
exclude all software from patentability, but argued in favour of new
amendments. Kauppi also accused the bill's supporters of overstating the
negative effects of the changes Parliament made in 2003. (see transcripts
of the session here.

Amendments must be tabled by early May, and JURI (the group responsible
for proposing any amendments to the directive) will meet again to discuss
the changes at the end of that month. The directive's official rapporteur,
Michel Rocard, wrapped the session by scheduling a vote on the directive
for 20 June before it moves to a plenary vote in Strasbourg, in July.

The Foundation for a Free Electronic Infrastructure (FFII) warns that the
main danger now is that there will not be enough MEPs in Parliament to
approve any changes.

Although passing amendments during a second reading is more difficult - it
requires an absolute majority vote - according to Joe McNamee, EU policy
director at the Political Intelligence consultancy, it happens fairly
often.

"The point here is that the Parliament could simply adopt the amendments
that it knows the Council won't accept and just stick with them - meaning
that the Directive will ultimately fall. The Parliament already said that
the Directive should be redrafted, so that would be the logical thing for
them to do, unless they've changed their minds," he said. =AE




--
Michelle Childs -Head of European Affairs
Consumer Project on Technology in London
24, Highbury Crescent, London, N5 1RX,UK.
Tel:+44(0)207 226 6663 ex 252.
Mob:+44(0)790 386 4642. Fax: +44(0)207 354 0607
http://www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036, USA
Tel.:  1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176

Consumer Project on Technology in Geneva
1 Route des  Morillons, CP 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 791 6727