2004-06-07 UK Parliamentary Debate on Patents Bill

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A long debate in the House of Commons on the Patents Bill (on facilitation of patent enforcement).

It's clear that the Patent Defence Union seems to have got its message over quite successfully. Many !MPs now favor legislation that would subsidise aggressive patent enforcement strategies such as those of PDU founder Mitchell of Allvoice. Similar legislation was proposed by Arlene McCarthy in summer of 2003 in an attempt to sway opposition by the !MEPs to her pro-patent course and appear more SME-friendly.

Even in the new improved presentation, it's a pretty lengthy read, for not an awful lot of enlightenment, but quite revealing for some of the broader views taken by !MPs on patents (or rather: by the handful of interested !MPs).

David Taylor made quite an effective intervention against swpat although the minister dismissed it with the usual patent propaganda text chunk (claiming that software patents have been granted for many decades and the proposed EU directive only harmonises the status quo).

Taylor's move is characteristic of worries that a number of backbench !MPs have about the Government's wholesale backing for the Directive.