[Ecommerce] EUParl votes against mutual recognition of patents by EU member states]

[Michelle Childs]

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT VOTES AGAINST
MUTUAL RECOGNITION OF PATENTS
BY THE EU MEMBER STATES

Anti-software patent campaigners successfully opposed a proposal
by a pro-patent MEP that "would result in a flood of patent suits
all over Europe, lower quality standards, and ever more software patents"

Strasbourg (March 15, 2006) -- The new round of the European debate on
patent policy has started with a first victory for anti-software patent
campaigners. A majority of the European Parliament today voted against
calling on the European Commission for a legislative proposal to stipulate
the mutual recognition of national patents by the 25 member states of the
EU. Such mutual recognition would make the patents that the national patent
office of any EU country grants enforceable against companies in all other
member states.

The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) and Florian
Mueller, the founder of the award-winning NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign,
jointly lobbied MEPs to vote against the related passage of a proposed
resolution, stressing that the mutual recognition of national patents "would
result in a flood of patent suits all over Europe, lower quality standards,
and ever more software patents", among other things because patent
applicants would "shop around" to find patent offices that are most willing
to grant patents which would then be valid in the entire EU.

The call for mutual  recognition of patents that had been sponsored by Klaus
Heiner Lehne MEP. Lehne, a German conservative, holds a job as a lobbyist
with the law firm Taylor Wessing, which handles many cases of patent
litigation especially in his home town of Dusseldorf and represents large
corporations in many areas of commercial law:
http://wiki.ffii.org/KlausHeinerLehneEn

Mueller called the outcome of today's vote in the European Parliament
"excellent news from Strasbourg". His recently started blog
(http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/florian-mueller-blog) also explains the
voting mechanism, a so-called split vote, that prevented the text from going
through as proposed by Lehne. Mueller published large parts of a memorandum
that Lehne had written to other EU politicians late last year and in which
the MEP claimed that the mutual recognition of national patents would make
Europe more competitive. By calling on the European Commission to make a
proposal for the mutual recognition of patents, the European Parliament
would not have taken a final legislative decision today, but such a call
"would have been a disappointing start for [anti-software patent
campaigners] with respect to the EU's new patent policy initiative, and it
would have had negative effects for the future", Mueller added.

Brussels-based Benjamin Henrion of the FFII welcomes the European
Parliament's decision because this way the parliament "keeps all options
open for the future of the European patent system" in light of the European
Commission's ongoing consultation on patent policy, which is preparatory to
new legislative proposals that EU observers expect the Commission to put
forward after the summer. Henrion said it would have been "a pity if Lehne's
proposal had slipped through as one of 67 items of a resolution on the EU's
Lisbon Agenda for innovation and economic policy".

Rufus Pollock, director of FFII UK, calls on companies and individuals who
are concerned about software patents to participate in the EU's consultation
on patent policy: "Today was a great result for us, but there will be many
more and bigger challenges ahead as the Commission prepares new proposals
concerning patent policy. It's very important that many companies and
individuals write to the Commission before the deadline on March 31.
Answering the Commission's questionnaire
(http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/indprop/patent/consultation_en.ht
m) is tricky, but the FFII has set up a Web site
(http://consultation.ffii.org/Downloads) that provides further explanation,
or people can also use Florian's position paper
(http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/florian-mueller-blog/position-paper/)
and submit it in their name."

REFERENCES

Today's resolution of the European Parliament was based on motion
B6-0162/2006, which had been jointly introduced by the chairmen of the three
largest groups in the parliament (EPP-ED, PES, ALDE).

At the request of EPP-ED and ALDE, paragraph 43 was subject to a split vote.
The proposed text without the words "small" and "mutual recognition" was
carried, while a majority voted against proposals to insert those words.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

FFII: see www.ffii.org
Florian Mueller: http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/florian-mueller.html

CONTACT INFORMATION

Benjamin Henrion, FFII Brussels, +32-2-4148403, bhenrion@ffii.org
Florian Mueller, +49-8151-21088, fmueller.nosoftwarepatents@gmail.com



--
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
1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA .Tel.:
+1.202.332.2670,Fax: +1.202.332.2673

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