Software Patent Directive sunk by EU council Snafu

Posted on 3 Feb 2005 at 12:23

Opponents of software patent laws in Europe are celebrating today following their victory of the hotly contested directive on 'computer-implemented' inventions. A vote by a key EU Committee has decided to look at the whole process again.

A vote taken at a meeting of JURI, the EU Committee on Legal Affairs Commission, the initiative to have a restart met with massive support, and with barely a handful of votes in opposition.

Opposition to the current draft has been triggered by the intransigence of the leaders of the EU Council of Ministers over addressing concerns about the perceived risks of allowing 'pure' software patents.

As author of this draft, the Council has resolutely refused to address the concerns of those opposed to software patents. Just hours before the JURI meeting, the Council told the Committee that it 'has now received written assurances concerning the re-instatement of this issue as an A point at a forthcoming Council'.

An 'A' point meant that no further changes would be made, leaving no possibility that any objections could be addressed.

The opposition was incensed. One MEP - Michel Rocard - made a speech during the meeting vehemently opposing the draft and the Council's attitude. He also condemned the Irish Presidency's sponsorship by Microsoft and the Dutch and German governments for ignoring their own parliaments.

Monica Frassoni, Co-President of the Green/EFA Group said after the vote: 'This decision provides the only reasonable way out of the present deadlock and will put the Council out of its misery.'

Eva Lichtenberger, Austrian Member of the Legal Affairs Committee, said: 'Today's courageous decision introduces the possibility of a better solution. I am very happy that we now have an opportunity to prevent software patenting and to obtain a better directive that will benefit the whole of the industry. We may now be able to stop market giants - aided by an American-style patenting law - from forcing innovators and SMEs out of the market.'

However, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Charles McCreevy, insisted that any new draft would still have to take into account the views of the Council. He also has the option to veto the restart, although this would seem unlikely given the strength of support.

The software patent issue has also received much attention in the media. Campaign organisations such as the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure and the Green party at the EU have lobbied tirelessy against the draft.

So effective has this been, that since the initial vote last May to adopt to the Council's draft, support has waned to the point where it no longer has a qualified majority.

Much of the opposition has come from Open Source proponents, fearful that the delicate ecosystem of small businesses working on Open Source projects would no longer be able to afford the financial and legal risks of continuing to do so if software patents were permitted. Furthermore, businesses looking to adopt Open Source software may think twice if they are unsure whether the software will be usable in the future without paying large licensing fees.

The Open Source Consortium (OSC), which represents the Open Source community across European developers and users in business and the public sector, recently established a Task Force to co-ordinate a campaign to have its voice heard. It is also working on EU-funded economic analysis of the impact of software patents in Europe.

Now the OSC feels vindicated in its efforts. Mark Taylor, Executive Director of the Open Source Consortium, said: 'We're thanking Europe for defying the culture of lemmings.'