E.C. votes for software patents, re-opens can of worms

May 19, 2004, 12:44 PM —  Techworld.com — 

The European Council has approved a controversial draft directive which will open the way for the patenting of software in Europe if it is approved by the European Parliament this autumn.

The directive passed by a narrow margin, with 27 of the 37 votes needed to block the proposal being exercised. Critics say the draft of "Patentability of computer-implemented inventions," known as the software patents directive, contains wording which would allow large companies to build up software patent arsenals, and so lock out smaller companies.

Software patents are already common in the U.S. and have recently been the source of several large-profile multi-million-dollar lawsuits.

In Tuesday's vote, the Council -- whose members are not MEPs but politicians from E.U. member states' national governments -- approved the draft with Belgium, Italy and Austria abstaining and Spain voting against. The vote was effectively decided by the support of Germany, which had earlier opposed the text, but was apparently persuaded by a minor compromise in the text's wording, according to observers.

"The agreed text contains provisions, in accordance with the practice developed within the European Patent Organisation, for patentability of computer-implemented inventions stipulating, inter alia, that a computer program as such can not constitute a patentable invention," the Council said in a statement.

The text approved by the Council is nearly identical to a version debated by the European Parliament last year, which provoked vehement opposition from economists, software developers, computer scientists, small and medium-sized businesses and some large companies such as Bull. Their arguments convinced MEPs to heavily modify the original proposal to ensure that computer programs could not be patented. These modifications proved so controversial with the European Commission that the directive was sent back for redrafting by an independent body consisting largely of member states' civil servants, including officials from national patent offices.

The text produced at the end of this process however in effect removed the MEPs' modifications, enraging those who had sought to place limits on the directive. "Their (the Commission and the Council) convoluted and misleading Patent Newspeak, negotiated in intransparent backroom dealings, is an insult to the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of Regions and the innumerable experts and stakeholders who have engaged in serious investigations on this directive project with us," said Danish MEP Pernille Frahm, in a statement.

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

I like it!
Post a comment
The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
peer-to-peer

jfruh
Apple syncing patent can't come soon enough

pasmith
New Twitter features borrow from 3rd party clients

Esther Schindler
Open Source Changes the Software Acquisition Process

mikelgan
How to set up continuous podcast play on the new iTunes

David Strom
Five important Windows 7 mobility features

sjvn
Guard your Wi-Fi for your own sake                        

Sandra Henry-Stocker
Grepping on Whole Words

 

Sidekick: The Good News & the Bad News
Either way you look at it Microsoft Data Center management did not follow standards or best practices in this failure. In which case it makes me wonder more about the outsourcing of corporate data much less personal data.
- mburton325

Join the conversation here

The Daily Tip

The Daily TipQuick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.

Hot tips:

Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.

Newsletters

Subscribe to ITWORLD TODAY and receive the latest IT news and analysis.

I would like to receive offers via email from ITworld partners.
By clicking submit you agree to the terms and conditions outlined in ITworld's privacy policy.
Featured Sponsor

AISO founders envisioned a Web hosting company that was environmentally friendly. While the company employed energy-efficient innovations like solar panels, its infrastructure produced unacceptable power and cooling requirements. Find out how AISO leveraged AMD technology to overcome their challenge in this case study white paper.

In this whitepaper, Scalar explores the opportunity to change the landscape with respect to mission critical databases built around Oracle. Leveraging technologies such as Linux, high-end commodity processing power and Oracle RAC technology to architect, design, build and maintain database infrastructure that delivers maximum availability, reliability and performance at a fraction of traditional cost.

On a typical day, weather.com, the Web site for The Weather Channel in Atlanta, serves up between 15 million and 20 million page views. But in September 2004, when back-to-back hurricanes ransacked Florida, the peak traffic on one day more than tripled: over 70 million page views by more than 7 million unique visitors. Read the full success story now.

Marketplace