European Commission refuses to rewrite patent directive

Posted on 1 Mar 2005 at 16:04

The European Commission has refused to rewrite a draft for a directive on 'computer-implemented' inventions, despite massive opposition.

The current draft, put forward by Europe's Council of Ministers, was approved in May. But since then much of the original support for the draft has melted away, and it no longer has a majority in support.

Now, in spite of recommendations from JURI, the EU Committee on Legal Affairs Commission, that the directive programme be restarted, and a subsequent request from the European Parliament for a restart, the Commission has said it is not prepared to do so.

The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) said it has learned from the EU that the Commission had decided some time ago that there would be no restart. It said the reason behind the refusal was that drafting a new text would involve gaining the approval not only of the Director General for the Internal Market - currently responsible for the directive - but also Director Generals from other departments such as the Information Society and Competition, which may be unlikely to support a version similar to the one already in existence.

'Instead of grabbing the chance to take into account all new facts which have come to light since the origin of the current directive text, namely the Green Paper from 1997, the Commission is alienating the European Parliament to an extent that it may very well simply call a halt to this farce which is supposed to represent democracy,' said Jonas Maebe, FFII Board Member. 'If a set of harmonised rules is truly the number one goal of the Commission, then why is it sabotaging the whole process?'

The FFII suspects that far from adding momentum to the current draft, the Commission's actions are essentially its death warrant. The European Parliament will be forced to reject it on a second reading.

The EU told us it was indeed likely to go to a second reading. President Barroso wrote to Jose Manuel Borrell, President of the European Parliament on Friday, we were told. He said that 'At this stage in the codecison procedure, and having supported the political agreement reached in the Council on 18 May 2004, the Commission does not intend to refer a new proposal to Parliament and Council. The Commission is expecting the Council to formalise the political agreement as a common position as soon as possible, so that discussion may continue during the next phase of the co-decision procedure.'

We were told that the President added that the Commission stands ready, in the course of the second reading, to review all arguments and positions expressed and respond accordingly.

In essence, then, the directive on computer-implemented inventions looks set to be based on the current draft that is causing so much outcry.

Author: Matt Whipp