March d-day for EU software patent

Europe’s competition ministers will on March 7 decide the fate of controversial EU software patent proposals.

The council of ministers must rule on a request from the European Parliament to withdraw the troubled 'Computer Implemented Inventions Directive'.

MEPs have contested the software patent law on three occasions ending with a unanimous vote rejecting the directive in the parliament’s ‘conference of presidents’.

The parliament is unable to demand that the European Commission redrafts the legislation but can under EU treaty law demand that MEPs are re-consulted.

European Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy has refused to re-think the rules and insists that Europe’s national governments must decide.

Proposals have been set to be agreed by the EU’s council of ministers on a number of occasions but have been withdrawn after opposition form some capitals.

“This dossier has to go further at a certain stage, we have just heard it will be again on the council agenda,” said his spokesman.

“So now we finally want once and for all that the council takes a decision or not.”

Opponents to the software directive argue that the legislation would benefit large companies at the expense of small competitors.

“McCreevy may be more interested in what is good for Microsoft than for Europe as a whole,” said Florian Mueller of the pan-European NoSoftwarePatents.com.

The 'Computer Implemented Inventions Directive' has run into trouble over concerns that small or medium sized software firms could lose out to Microsoft, Nokia, Ericsson and Alcatel.

Poland, with some support in Hungary, Latvia, and the Netherlands, has allied with MEPs and campaigners to effectively reboot the legislation.

On a first parliamentary reading MEPs tried to limit the impact of the EU patent on software by restricting its scope to computer-related inventions.

But many of parliament’s amendments were then rejected at a May 18 2004 council of EU ministers.

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