Microsoft has denied the allegation which appeared in Danish
newspaper Boersen. The company said there are no plans to close the
Microsoft Development Center at Vedbaek. However, the report was
enough to annoy.
"Danish policy should not be dictated by corporations – no
matter how big they might be. What's crucial is finding a solution
that serves small as well as big IT companies best. And that is not
necessarily the solution that Microsoft or other software mastodons
feel to be the right one", said the Danish Social Democratic IT
spokesman Thomas Adelskov.
The draft Directive, often known as the Software Patents
Directive, has been on the verge of approval by the Council of
Ministers since May, when European Trade Ministers rejected
amendments made to the draft by the European Parliament. Some MEPs
expressed fears that the wording of the Directive risks bringing to
Europe the more liberal regime of software and business method
patenting that exists in the US.
Progress on the draft Directive then stalled, as political
manoeuvring kept the proposals off the Council agenda, where it was
due to be included as an "A" item, being one that is voted through
without discussion.
The Polish Government has been influential in delaying the vote,
taking advantage of new voting weights that came into force on 1st
November. Denmark also appears to have disrupted progress of the
draft in the run up to its Parliamentary elections on 8th February
and, together with Spain and the Netherlands, has pushed the
proposals off the agenda for tomorrow's meeting of the Economic and
Financial Affairs council.
A protest planned by anti-patent activists for tomorrow will go
ahead, despite the change in agenda.
"The Council and the Commission have demonstrated over and over
again that they do not show the slightest respect for the European
citizen," said Dieter Van Uytvanck, spokesperson for protest
organisers the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure.
"Over and over again, they continue to promote software patents
with a complete neglect of the opposing voices from a large
majority in the EU parliament. Enough is enough, and on 17th
February, they will know it!"
Also taking place tomorrow is a vote on whether to ask the
Commission to send the proposed Directive back to Parliament for a
first reading – a request that, if granted, would start the
Parliamentary debate afresh.
An influential Parliamentary Committee approved the motion in
early February, and it is now being put forward to the Conference
of Presidents (the leaders of all the Parliament's political
groups). If approved, the motion then goes to the Parliamentary
President Josep Borrell, who will decide whether to make a formal
request to the Commission.
