2005-07-05 Mann speech in Plenary

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Erika Mann, a german social democrat MEP who suddenly converted to the pro-software-patent camp in April 2003 for mysterious reason, claims that companies need software patents and currently are inhibited from obtaining them and therefore need the Council's directive, and that there is a majority in the Parliament in favor of this, but certain adjustments have to be made on interoperability, asks Commission to debate these adjustments. Transcript of English translation, speech was in German.

I beg you pardon. Predident, commissioner, collegues, I would like to point out on ??? collegues that during the negotionations, we have found a majority agreeing on wanting patentability of computer implemented inventions, and the strength of our companies depends on that. What is the situation now, is that there are companies that want to have patents in this area and they can't do it in fact. And the comissioner has just pleaded in favor of more harmonization at the European level. And what we want to avoid as well, and I think also here collegues a agree, I think that we do not want to see an american development on patentability, so that we see that software is patented as software, but what we want to put in very plain language is software to hardware, but there is really a difficulty in getting straight-forward language for describing it because, I'd like to put this to the Commision: We have so many proposals, but how can we do this for example on the amendments for tomorrow, we are talking the amendments which have been tabled with respect to interoperability. We have the Rocard amendments, and we have also amendments from other collegues. We have Paia Noora Kaupii's amendment and we have my amendment, and I would like to ask the comission what its possition is on all these various amendments. Particluarily in respect to compulsory licenses, or the limitation exclusion when we are talking about software to software. Comissioner, maybe you would be kind enough to give an opinition on that. Thank you.