| The European Parliament |
After three years of fierce diplomatic and political wrangling, legislation designed to harmonize software patenting practices across the EU finally died on July 6.
The European Parliament rejected the proposed law by 648 votes to 14, with 18 abstentions.
The crushing defeat came as no surprise. The draft legal text that went through MEPs hands in Strasbourg in July had, after years of drafting and re-drafting, become a heavily amended version of what the European Commission first proposed in February 2002.
The latest text had few backers in either the pro- or anti-software patenting lobbies. Both camps have expressed satisfaction with the result.
Software patent opponents the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) called it a "great victory" against the risk of monopolization of software functionalities and business methods by big companies. "It marks the end of an attempt by the European Commission and governmental patent officials to impose detrimental and legally questionable practices of the European Patent Office on the member states," FFII said on its website.
And even industry, which had been in favour of a harmonized software patent law all along, welcomed the Parliament's decision. "This is a wise decision that has helped industry to avoid legislation that could have narrowed the scope of patent legislation in Europe," said Mark MacGann, director-general of EICTA, which represents large and small high-tech companies such as Canon, HP, Nokia and Philips.
The Commission had already announced that it would not propose a new or re-drafted version of its original proposal if Parliament rejected the latest text.
The Commission's aim, when it first proposed the EU directive on the patenting of computer-implemented inventions, was to harmonize member states' widely differing software patent regulations, while at the same time protecting Europe from a more liberal US-style approach towards software patenting.
Despite the opponents' triumph, the death of the directive will not mean the end of software patenting in Europe. Patents on computerized inventions will continue to be granted by national offices depending on national regulations, and by the EPO.
John Collins of Marks & Clerk said the main problem was now one of public perception. "Software patenting is not going to stop in Europe, but will continue as before. We're basically back to square one."
The demise of the directive means that Europe will continue to have different national practices on software patenting, with some countries, such as the UK, being more stringent on the patenting of software and business methods than, for instance, the EPO. But the ferocity of the arguments may still be felt in national patent offices. "This issue has opened the debate, and this debate will continue for some more time," said Ilias Konteas, legal adviser at industry group UNICE.
The Commission's original proposal followed the EPO's established practice of allowing protection of computer programs which make a technical contribution and contribute to the state of the art in the technical field concerned, but not allowing patents for computer programs in or of themselves. Its aim was to introduce a narrower definition than in the US, where any invention using a computer or software, as well as methods of doing business, can be patented.
But anti-software patent groups lobbied against the proposal, prompting the European Parliament to recommend more than 70 amendments. A second version of the directive was rushed through the Council before EU expansion in May 2004.
Despite opposition from the Parliament, the Council formally adopted the latest draft, which was sent to Parliament for a second reading.
July's No vote was no surprise. "There is collective anger throughout the Parliament because of the way the directive was handled by the Commission and the Council," said Michel Rocard, former French prime minister and the Parliament's rapporteur of the directive, the day before the vote.
With the software patent issue buried, and groups such as FFII celebrating the end with champagne, discussions in Parliament soon turned to another controversial issue - the Community patent. It is a topic which the Commission and, according to sources in Brussels, the UK EU presidency want to focus on. Discussions on this issue could be revived in the next six months.
