Software patents - state of the union
Here is a short overview of the current situation.
Legislative procedure
We are talking about a EU directive (that later is going to be implemented into national law), that is to decide whether mathematical and business methods implemented in computer programs should be patentable.
- In January 2002 the EU commission presented a proposal claiming to harmonise the situation in Europe. In reality, it cemented the enforceability of all granted software patents throughout the EU.
- On 24 September 2003 the EU parliament changed this proposal, so that by clear exclusion clauses the enforcement of patents concerning pure software innovation is blocked.
- On 18 May 2004 the EU council of ministers reached a preliminary political agreement over a new text. This text kept those exclusion clauses that can be easily circumvented. It would make 30,000 already granted software patents (incl. business method patents) enforceable in the entire EU. At that time, Spain, Italy, Austria and Belgium did not support that position.
- In Summer there was a Parliament decision in the Netherlands asking the minister to change his vote.
- In July, the Dutch parliament passed a motion requesting the Dutch government to stop supporting the Council text.
- In Germany, a motion by the liberals was discussed in the Bundestag on 21 October 2004. Other motions, by the conservatives and possibly also one by the Greens and Social Democrats are under way in Germany.
- There is discussion in the Parliaments of several other countries as well
- A possible date when the EU Council of Ministers could pass or (hopefully) revisit the preliminary political agreement, is 25/26 November 2004. The representatives in the Council of Ministers typically come from the ministries of justice, economy or research, and are bound by the decisions of your government.
FFII Position
FFII demands:
- Legal certainty by clear exclusion clauses of the type "X should not be patentable" (emulating paragraph 52(2) EPC).
- Freedom of publication: no patent violation by publishing or distributing software.
- Guarantee that the usage of a computer in an office or networking environment can never lead to a patent infringement.
- Clarification of the inclusion terms imposed by TRIPs. Clear limitation of the term "technology". "Technology" never should refer to logic or algorithms.
- Substantiation of Paragraph 30 TRIPs as interoperability privilege
-> Details/Background: http://swpat.ffii.org/analysis/needs/
Pointers
SwpatcninoEn for News
SwpatpenmiEn for Events
9-10 November 2004: Conference in Brussels http://eu.ffii.org/sections/bxl0411/index
http://www.NoSoftwarePatents.com/ (superb materials in 12 EU languages, more coming soon!)
-> You too can influence the EU decision making process by joining any of these projects! You can join via http://aktiv.ffii.org/.
Contact
- info(at)ffii.org,
http://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/at-parl/ (at = Austria)
http://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/be-parl/ (be Belgium)
- and so on...
