[DMCA-Activists] ZDNet: Protests Delay Software Patents Vote

[Seth Johnson]

> http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-5070092.html?tag=fd_top


Protests delay software patents vote


By Matthew Broersma 
September 1, 2003


The European Parliament has delayed voting on a controversial software-
patents directive, after protests and criticism by computer scientists 
and economists.

The vote, originally planned for Monday, will now take place at a 
plenary session starting Sept. 22. 

Software patents have been likened to allowing a monopoly on the ideas 
behind stories, and opponents of the proposed Directive on the 
Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions claim it would 
effectively allow unlimited software patents. In the United States, 
large companies acquire arsenals of patents that they use to protect 
themselves from upstart competition. 

The directive, drafted by Labor Member of European Parliament Arlene 
McCarthy, has generated political opposition from the Greens and the 
European Socialist Party (PSE), among others. The German and French 
socialist parties are using the delay as an opportunity to raise MEPs' 
awareness of the issues surrounding software patents ahead of the late-
September plenary session. 

A demonstration last week in Brussels, Belgium, that attracted more 
than 400 participants was organized by the Foundation for a Free 
Information Infrastructure (FFII) and Eurolinux, among other groups, 
which also persuaded several hundred Web sites to black out their 
front pages in protest. 

A June vote on the proposal was put back amid criticism by MEPs that 
the legislation would institute a U.S.-style patent atmosphere that 
would be detrimental to European small businesses and open-source 
software developers. 

The proposed software-patenting legislation is the result of a 
European Commission effort to clarify patenting rules as they apply 
to "computer-implemented inventions," a term that can be taken to 
include software. The patent offices of different EU member states 
have different criteria for accepting the validity of software-related 
patents, a situation that the Commission's proposal aims to remedy. 

MEP McCarthy said in a June analysis of the proposed directive that 
there were links between the patentability of computer-related 
inventions and the growth of IT industries in the United States. Such 
patents aided "in particular the growth of small and medium 
enterprises and independent software developers," she wrote, citing a 
study on the issue carried out for the European Parliament by London's 
Intellectual Property Institute. 

But in a recent letter criticizing the directive, a group of 
economists poured scorn on any notion that software patents and 
business growth are connected, saying most economic research does not 
support this claim. They argued that the directive in its current form 
would "have serious detrimental effects on European innovation, 
growth, and competitiveness." 

Matthew Broersma of ZDNet UK reported from London.