How To Use SMEs
The defeated proponents of software patentability of July 2005 use today another strategy aiming at pretending to represent fully SMEs of the ICT sector.
July 2005
On 6 July 2005, the European Parliament solemnly and massively rejected Commission's proposal directive on "Computer-Implemented Inventions" the 6th of July 2005, thanks to FFII lobbying campaign called "Economic Majority Against Software Patents". The success of this lobbying campaign relied mostly on SMEs. The main argument of FFII was that SMEs the backbone of European economy truly opposed software patentability. Thus, the failure of the software patentability proponents was mainly to forget these major actors lobbying the European Institutions on behalf of big companies holding numerous software patents such as Nokia or Philips.
Economic Majority Against Software Patents
July 2006
One year later, the proponents of software patentability seem now to have understood their failure for they are actually pretend to represent European SMEs of the ICT sector. Since June 2006, in views of the public hearing on the future patent policy organized by the European Commission on 12 July, they have triggered a silent SME campaign for software patents. All stakeholders companies, interest groups, institutions seem to participate in this vast lobbying offensive. Why targeting SMEs? To gain representativity, that is legitimacy toward EU institutions especially the European Parliament.
- Companies such as Microsoft with SMEday
Brussels, Belgium, 6 June 2006.
It is clear that the European ICT sector is composed in great majority of SMEs recognised as the growth engine of the European economy: there are around 22 million SMEs in Europe, employing close to 120 million people and contributing 57 per cent to Europe's GDP. That's why Microsoft generously offered to bring together European business innovators, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and governments to provide a "360-degree view of how SMEs can drive innovation and growth in Europe". Of course, it might appear paradoxical that giant Microsoft organized such an event dedicated to SMEs and innovation, especially knowing that last year the same Microsoft was "actively" supporting the CII directive threatening EU software SMEs. You say astroturf? Quite probable. And we were not surprised to hear through the conferences such proposals as importing Ireland capitalistic model all over Europe, creating more partnership between majors and SMEs and of course improving "today's disastrous IP system in EU".
- EU institution such as the European Commission
Brussels, Belgium, 3 July 2006.
The European Commission published on-line the preliminary findings of the public consultation on the future of European patent policy. Not only this short synthesis included an unintended SME panel of 664 enterprises having interests with a future European patent system and but it excluded also more than one thousand of FFII standard replies from the analysis. The aim was to bring more representativity and legitimacy to this European Commission initiative because SMEs constitute the backbone of the European economy.
- Interest group such as CompTIA with its manifesto SMEs patent reform
Brussels, Belgium, 12 July 2006.
CompTIA (Computing Technology Industry Association), an ICT interest group notorious for his support to the Campaign for Creativity, edited a manifesto called SME Patent Reform the 12 July 2006, that is the very day of the Public Hearing. The day before, the SME-Union in cooperation with the same interest group organized a working lunch on EU patents and SMEs: The Road ahead? which took place on July 11th from in the European Parliament. The strategy is clear. These events and publications aim at creating the feeling that SMEs support the European Commission initiatives.
- European institution such as the European Patent Office (EPO)
Brussels, Belgium, 12 July 2006.
Professor Alain Pompidou, president of the European Patent Office, said in his closing speech of the public hearing on 12 July 2006, that SMEs are the principal applicants at the EPO. In 2005, of the 34 200 applicants who filed in, nine out of ten would be "small applicants" chiefly SMEs filing between one and five applications per year. That is to say, EPO is the trustworthy friend of SMEs.
« [ ] Et parmi les 34 200 déposants enregistrés à loffice européen des brevets en 2005, 90%, 90%, les 9/10 étaient des petits déposants, principalement des petites et moyennes entreprises, des organismes de recherche académiques, professionnels ou institutionnels déposant entre 1 et 5 demandes de brevets par an. Voilà les statistiques. De quel domaine technologique relève ces demandes ? 11% seulement relevaient des secteurs des TIC. 9/10 demandes relevaient du secteur technologique en général, tels que lélectronique, lautomatisation, les besoins de la vie quotidienne, la chimie ou loptique. Ces chiffres mamènent à insister sur le point suivant. Lécrasante majorité des utilisateurs du système des brevets européen sont des petits déposants, dans des domaines technologiques, disons « non-controversés », à de très rares exceptions prêts, ce ne sont pas des demandes qui font la une des journaux ».
"What do I mean when I refer to "innovative businesses"? Who are they? One yardstick is that most of them file patent applications. At the European Patent Office, of the 34 200 applicants who filed in 2005, nine out of ten were "small applicants" chiefly SMEs filing between one and five applications per year. In which fields of technology do these "small applicants" file their applications? Of the applications filed in 2005 by "small applicants" Only 11% related to Information and Communication Technologies (the "ICT" sector) Nine applications out of ten related to general fields of technology such as electronics, automation, human necessities, chemistry or optics".
- However, pretend representing SMEs is not the same as truly and effectively representing SMEs. ICT Task Force excludes SMEs.
Brussels, London, Berlin, Warsaw, Ljubljana, 4th July 2006
In an open letter to the EU Commission, six small business associations called on Commissioners Verheugen and Reding to modify their plans for the ICT Task Force, designed "to define the future EU policy in ICT".
Assuming that the Commission's goals are to generate useful discussion of its IT policies, FFII proposes that the European Commission work together with our organisations to represent the ICT SMEs into the policy process. Actually, 80% of the IT sector is constituted by SMEs. That's why FFII formally requested that the European Commission complete the missing economic majority of its work by ensuring that this Task Force adequately represents the bulk of the IT industry.
Understanding that it is easier to group together a few large firms, than to group the hundreds of thousands of SMEs which form the mass of the European information economy, FFII proposed that the Commission work together with us to bring this silent majority into the process.
Pieter Hintjens, President of FFII, said: "The idea that we can create EU-wide policy and legislation without input from a broad base has been discredited. The EU must become more inclusive and less elitist if it is to survive the challenges of public opinion in the decades ahead. We are giving the Commission the opportunity to work with the majority now, rather than face mass opposition later when it presents yet one more set of special-interest proposals that damage the market.
The Commission webpage of the ICT Task Force
