[Olug-list] European Parliament agrees on software patents (fwd)

[Thomas Gramstad]

Fikk tilsendt denne, dette høres jo ikke så verst ut, og stemmer
også med det Tom Ekeberg fortalte på OLUG-møtet.

Thomas Gramstad
thomas@efn.no

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2003 09:44:19 +0200
From: NN
Subject: European Parliament agrees on software patents

European Parliament agrees on software patents
By Paul Meller, IDG News Service
September 24, 2003 12:10 pm ET

The European Parliament voted in favor of a law that goes some way
toward limiting the scope for patents on software programs Wednesday.

The issue still must be debated by European Union (EU) member states
before a new law is passed, however.

With 364 voting in favor, 153 against and 33 abstentions, members of
the European Parliament (MEPs) appear to have ignored heavy lobbying
from both extremes in the debate by opting for a compromise solution.

The Parliament was considering changes to the original text published
by the European Commission (EC), the executive branch of the EU. Most
of the changes were designed to tighten up the wording of the law to
make it harder for people to obtain patents.

For example, the MEPs agreed to an amendment which outlaws the
patenting of algorithms. Another accepted amendment explicitly
outlaws the patenting of business methods, such as the "one-click"
online shopping technique patented in the U.S. by Amazon.com.

"Inventions involving computer programs which implement business,
mathematical or other methods and do not produce any technical effect
beyond the normal physical interactions between a program and the
computer, network or other programmable apparatus in which it is run,
shall not be patentable," the amendment read.

This is the first of two votes on the software patent directive in
the European Parliament. Before casting their ballots again, the
directive, including the amendments agreed on by the MEPs Wednesday,
will be debated by ministers from the 15 EU state governments.

Speaking shortly after the vote Wednesday, MEP Arlene McCarthy, a
U.K. member of the Socialist Party, said the Parliament has sent a
clear message: "We do want strict limits on patentability of
software. All the amendments that were adopted were in this
direction," she said. "We have effectively rewritten the directive."

McCarthy led the debate when the bill was being discussed at
committee stage in the Parliament and also drew up the amendments to
be considered at this week's plenary session of the body.

She said, however, that she expects the text supported by the
Parliament today to be rejected by the 15 member state governments
and by the directive's original author, the European Commission.

"They will probably say we have gone too far in restricting software
patents," McCarthy said.

"I tried to balance the various interests here with a text that
doesn't undermine the obvious need for patent protection for real
inventions, while averting a slide towards the more liberal patent
regime in the U.S.," McCarthy said.

The European Commission gave a guarded response to the vote in the
European Parliament.

"We will carefully analyze the amendments adopted," said Jonathan
Todd, EC spokesman for internal market affairs.

"Our proposal represents a middle way. If the member state
governments think the Parliament has gone to far (away from our
position) they won't adopt the directive," Todd said.

McCarthy said there is a danger that member states could cut the
European Parliament out of the lawmaking process by scrapping the
directive altogether and instead revising the existing Munich Patent
Convention, which is the legal base for the existing patent regime
operated by the European Patent Office (EPO).

The EPO regime is a patchwork of national interpretations of the
Patent Convention. One of the aims of the EU directive was to
harmonize the approach to patents across the European Union.

McCarthy said scrapping the directive would be a bad outcome for the
software industry. "The existing regime is supposed to outlaw
business method patents, but some are being approved. Without an
EU-wide law there will always be a danger that European law slides
towards the law in the U.S.," she said.

Ministers from member state governments are scheduled to debate the
directive in November. It is common for the European Parliament to
tone down its differences with the EC and the member state
governments, once all branches of the EU have had a chance to issue
debate issues.

"We want to be careful not to push too far," McCarthy said.

The directive would only come into effect as law if Parliament and
the national governments agree on its wording. Once they agree, the
15 member states have about 18 months to implement the directive into
their own national laws.

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