The Council had been widely expected to rubber-stamp the measure,
which would then have gone back to Parliament for a second reading.
The Directive seeks to harmonise European rules on the
patentability of "computer-implemented inventions" – devices like
mobile phones, intelligent household appliances, engine control
devices, machine tools and computer program-related inventions. But
many are concerned that the Directive risks bringing to Europe the
more liberal regime of software and business method patenting that
exists in the US.
After many delays the draft Directive came before the European
Parliament in September last year, and was passed only after many
amendments were made to tighten the scope for patentability,
pleasing small businesses and developers but angering some of the
big players in the industry, who called on the Council of Ministers
to reverse the position.
European Trade Ministers did so in May, adopting a common
position that reinstated much of the original Commission proposals,
much to the delight of the Commission, which claimed that the text
would provide legal clarity while avoiding any drift towards
patents for business methods or computer programs that do not
provide any technical contribution to the state of the art.
The measure then had to go forward for approval by the Council
of Ministers. It should have come before the Competitiveness
Council today.
But according to the Greens/EFA Group in the European
Parliament, the Council has decided to remove the Directive from
its agenda for today's meeting. It will now, says the Group, be
referred back to Coreper – the committee for EU permanent
representative offices – for further technical discussion.
It is unusual for Ministers to make decisions on issues that
have not already been thrashed out by Coreper, which does the
Council leg work. The implication is therefore that there is still
disagreement between Member States behind the scenes, such that a
rubber stamp could not yet be applied to the compromise
proposals.
"Officially, the Council has experienced translation
difficulties with the new official languages of the EU," said
Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Co-President of the Greens/EFA Group. "In
reality this file is returning to Coreper in order to allow the
technical discussions between experts from the Member States to
continue."
"I am pleased that the Parliament's position, which wanted to
limit patents to technical inventions, is now also defended by the
Council," said Cohn-Bendit.
"The so-called compromise adopted by the Council on 18th June
makes a mockery of the Parliament's position and opens the door to
software patents – and consequently, to the control of the EU's
economy by a small number of multinationals. I hope that the next
proposal will be better and that Parliament will finally be able to
start the second reading of the directive by the end of the year,"
he added.
The announcement comes shortly after appeals from lobby groups
that the compromise proposals be shelved.
On 6th September the Free Software Foundation Europe sent an
open letter asking the Dutch EU Presidency to reconsider the
compromise proposals, warning that it would adversely hit the EU
target of making Europe the "most competitive knowledge-based
economy by 2010".
"30,000 software patents already exist in the EU," said the
letter. "Three quarters of software patents are held by
non-European companies. To give software patents a legal basis may
be a decision which would make the EU far less competitive."
A day earlier, the Foundation for a Free Information
Infrastructure (FFII) had called on the Committee of National
Parliaments – which has members from the European Parliament and
from committees of national parliaments dealing with European
affairs – to look at what it calls "democratic deficits in the
European Union", particularly relating to the time which has been
given to new Member States to consider the proposals.
The FFII urged the Council of Ministers to look at the proposals
again, rather than simply rubber-stamping them.
It appears that the FFII's wish has been granted.
