http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3517951
July 6, 2005
European Parliament Rejects Software Patents
By Jim Wagner
The European Parliament voted overwhelming, 648-14 with 18
abstentions, against a proposed software patent directive Wednesday.
The Computer-Implemented Inventions (CII) patents directive, if
passed, would have given software patent owners unified protections
across the European Union (EU). The EU floated the proposal to the
parliamentary body in May 2004 to bring patent laws in line with
patent law in the U.S.
Proponents of the measure said that without the directive in place,
computerized inventions will still be granted by member nation offices
and the European Patent Office, but with no unified standards or
rules.
Michel Rocard, a member of the European Parliament, has been an
opponent of the proposed initiative, saying software on its own is
immaterial and shouldn't be considered a technical innovation.
"Things have gone off the rails when the European Patent Office calls
that technical," he said. "We now have patents granted on teaching
methods, sales methods and surgical guides."
Officials at the EU don't have any plans to re-introduce a new
software patent proposal in the future. Oliver Drewes, a spokesman for
the EU internal market and services, said it's a position that's
consistent with previous statements by European Commissioner Charlie
McCreevy.
"He already stated in the plenary on March 8 that it was necessary
that the parliament should express itself in clear terms on this
matter; this is what happened today," he said. "The commission
respects the parliament's wishes; there will be no new proposals
coming from the commission in this area."
Mark McGann, director general of high-tech industry body European
Information & Communications Technology Industry Association, welcomed
the decision and said it preserves the status quo in the EU.
"This is a wise decision that has helped industry to avoid legislation
that could have narrowed the scope of patent legislation in Europe,"
he said in a statement.
Open source software developers and vendors argue that copyright law
is adequate in ensuring innovation; the introduction of CII patents,
however, would have the potential to stifle software innovation.
In a letter to the European Parliament in October 2004, Linus
Torvalds, Linux kernel (define) creator, Michael Widenius, MySQL
author, and Rasmus Lerdorf, a PHP programmer, said copyrights serve
software authors but patents potentially deprive them of their own
creations.