It has become convinced, according to reports, that the wording
of the text could allow for the creation of a more liberal regime
of software and business method patenting in the EU, similar to
that existing in the US.
It would support unambiguous regulations, said the Polish
Government, but not a Directive under which the functionality of
software could be patented.
The draft, better known as the controversial software patents
Directive, was widely expected to be rubber-stamped by the Council
at its next meeting, but lobbyists suggest that the Polish
Government's withdrawal of support will leave backers of the
measure with insufficient votes on the Council to push the measure
through.
According to the Foundation for a Free Information
Infrastructure, without the support of Poland, those countries that
supported the proposal in May now fall short of a qualified
majority by 16 votes. New voting weights, which took effect in the
EU on 1st November, gave Poland the ability to scupper the
vote.
The Council vote had already been delayed, officially due to a
delay in translations, but the vote will now have to be further
postponed if the Council is forced to renegotiate the draft.
The Council announced only last week that it hoped to ratify the
Directive soon, in order to send the measure back to the European
Parliament in December for a second reading. Once there, the
Directive was certain to receive a rough reception, following the
Council's deletion of most of the Parliament's previous amendments
to the draft.
"Countries such as Luxembourg, Latvia, Denmark and Italy had
called for changes similar to the amendments made by the European
Parliament, but those were rejected by the then-Irish presidency.
They now have a chance to propose their amendments again, with
support from Poland," said Jan Macek of FFII Poland.
"That will help bring the directive more in line with the
European Parliament which took the position of clearly disallowing
software and business method patents," he added.
"We are glad that Poland's refusal to rubber stamp the directive
will open the door to renegotiations among the Member States and
make it possible to incorporate the major improvements to the
Directive that were proposed by the Parliament but have thus far
been ignored. We believe that the Council should now only accept a
clear and restrictive definition of patentable inventions," said
Eva Lichtenberger, Austrian member of the Legal Affairs Committee,
and member of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament.
