Tuesday, July 05, 2005
EU Parliament moves closer to law rejection
JUL. 5 9:51 A.M. ET The European Parliament moved Tuesday toward rejecting a proposed law creating a single way of patenting software across the European Union, officials said -- a move that would effectively kill the legislation since lawmakers do not plan to set forth a new version.
EU lawmakers were to vote Wednesday on the so-called software patent directive, which if approved would give companies EU-wide patent protection for computerized inventions ranging from programs for complex CAT scanners to ABS car-brake systems. Currently, patent disputes are handled by individual member states.
"It seems the momentum is growing for the rejection of the proposal," said Federico de Girolamo, spokesman for the parliament's legislative committee.
De Girolamo said legislators will consider three proposals to reject the entire bill before the actual vote. If approved, that would bury the legislation since the European Commission, which had drafted it, said it would not put forward a new draft.
Klaus-Heiner Lehne, a German member of the parliament's conservative faction who is also coordinator of the assembly's powerful legal committee, said rejection of the bill was a "very real possibility."
The bill -- which would extend patent protection to computer programs when the software is used in the context of realizing inventions -- has been bouncing around the EU institutions for five years. Rejected by parliament once and sent to the European Commission for redrafting, it has been the subject of intensive lobbying.
Big companies such as Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG are fighting hard for adoption of the bill, saying they need to invest in research and development.
"We'd miss a golden opportunity if the bill got rejected," said Marc MacGann, director general of EICTA, a group representing 10,000 companies including Nokia and Alcatel SA. "Currently there are 25 ways of interpreting patent. This law would bring harmonization and simplify things."
Open source advocates are campaigning against it, saying that individuals and small businesses could be bankrupted by expensive legal battles with software giants over fuzzy patent law.
About a hundred demonstrators protesting the proposed law gathered outside parliament on Tuesday. Clad in yellow vests with a "No to software patents" logo and holding banners saying "Software patents kill innovation" and "U.S. patents go out," they stopped cars with deputies outside the parliament entrance, urging them to vote against bill.
The bill stops short of the U.S. system that allows patenting of business methods or computer programs such as Amazon.com Inc.'s "one-click" shopping technique, which gives consumers a quick system to buy goods on its Web site.
Some 178 amendments to the bill have been tabled by parliamentarians ahead of the vote -- which is expected to drag for hours if it is needed -- and if any is adopted the proposal would go to a process called 'conciliation' between the Parliament and the EU Council which could take months to complete.
"The industry never likes conciliation," MacGann said. "It means months and months of horse-trading and uncertainty. We'd rather see the bill rejected. "
The Green Party alone has tabled 21 amendments in a last-ditch effort to dilute the legislation. Their amendments would limit the scope of the bill to include only "technical contributions," meaning any pure software code cannot be patented.
The European Commission has made the patent law an essential part of its economic reform program.
source:http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8B590UG0.htm
EU lawmakers were to vote Wednesday on the so-called software patent directive, which if approved would give companies EU-wide patent protection for computerized inventions ranging from programs for complex CAT scanners to ABS car-brake systems. Currently, patent disputes are handled by individual member states.
"It seems the momentum is growing for the rejection of the proposal," said Federico de Girolamo, spokesman for the parliament's legislative committee.
De Girolamo said legislators will consider three proposals to reject the entire bill before the actual vote. If approved, that would bury the legislation since the European Commission, which had drafted it, said it would not put forward a new draft.
Klaus-Heiner Lehne, a German member of the parliament's conservative faction who is also coordinator of the assembly's powerful legal committee, said rejection of the bill was a "very real possibility."
The bill -- which would extend patent protection to computer programs when the software is used in the context of realizing inventions -- has been bouncing around the EU institutions for five years. Rejected by parliament once and sent to the European Commission for redrafting, it has been the subject of intensive lobbying.
Big companies such as Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG are fighting hard for adoption of the bill, saying they need to invest in research and development.
"We'd miss a golden opportunity if the bill got rejected," said Marc MacGann, director general of EICTA, a group representing 10,000 companies including Nokia and Alcatel SA. "Currently there are 25 ways of interpreting patent. This law would bring harmonization and simplify things."
Open source advocates are campaigning against it, saying that individuals and small businesses could be bankrupted by expensive legal battles with software giants over fuzzy patent law.
About a hundred demonstrators protesting the proposed law gathered outside parliament on Tuesday. Clad in yellow vests with a "No to software patents" logo and holding banners saying "Software patents kill innovation" and "U.S. patents go out," they stopped cars with deputies outside the parliament entrance, urging them to vote against bill.
The bill stops short of the U.S. system that allows patenting of business methods or computer programs such as Amazon.com Inc.'s "one-click" shopping technique, which gives consumers a quick system to buy goods on its Web site.
Some 178 amendments to the bill have been tabled by parliamentarians ahead of the vote -- which is expected to drag for hours if it is needed -- and if any is adopted the proposal would go to a process called 'conciliation' between the Parliament and the EU Council which could take months to complete.
"The industry never likes conciliation," MacGann said. "It means months and months of horse-trading and uncertainty. We'd rather see the bill rejected. "
The Green Party alone has tabled 21 amendments in a last-ditch effort to dilute the legislation. Their amendments would limit the scope of the bill to include only "technical contributions," meaning any pure software code cannot be patented.
The European Commission has made the patent law an essential part of its economic reform program.
source:http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8B590UG0.htm
# posted by dark master : 7/05/2005 01:10:00 PM
