Brussels, 21/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - The committee on legal affairs of the EP voted on Monday on the draft report by French Socialist Michel Rocard on the proposed directive on the patentability of inventions developed by computer. Against a backdrop of considerable confusion due to the inadequacy of the room to cope with such a strong turnout, the MEPs were called upon to take position on 256 amendments. They rejected the majority of the rapporteur's amendments. 16 MEPs voted in favour of the final version, and 10 against. Industry (EICTA) said that this vote was "a step in the right direction" towards the common position of the Council. The proponents of free software (FFII) regret that in the form in which it was adopted, the report leaves this common position " largely unchanged", and in certain places, " makes it worse". All parties will redouble their efforts before the second reading, to be held in a fortnight at the July plenary. The votes of 368 MEPs will be needed to adopt the report. The Council will then have a maximum of four months to react.
Before the vote, Michel Rocard reiterated the line he has always followed: defining the red line which allows the field of the patentability of computer-developed inventions to be delineated exactly, whilst clearly excluding the registration of patents for pure software (EUROPE 8954). My objective, he said, is to "add clarity to the common position" of the Council, in order to "get rid of any grey areas", but I am the bearer of bad news, which is that we have failed to obtain a "compromise which has the support of all positions ".
What are the main results of the committee's vote? No changes have been made to the title of the legislative proposal: it still refers to "computer-developed" inventions rather than "computer-assisted" inventions, as suggested by one of Mr Rocard's amendments. The MEPs agreed to the rapporteur's definition concerning the notion of "technical area", which designates a field of application which requires the use of "controllable forces of nature" to obtain results possible to forecast in the physical world. They adopted one of the rapporteur's compromise amendments and another compromise amendment by Piia-Noora Kauppi (EPP-ED, of Finland), defining the notions of interoperability and technical contribution respectively. Article 4 of the common position, which refers to exclusions from the scope of patentability, remains unchanged: it stipulates, amongst other things, that "a computer programme cannot constitute a patentable invention", thus taking up the Munich European Convention on patents. The Rocard amendment on the form of applications for patent was approved. However, the point of the common position authorising an application to be made for a patent for a computer program only when this was used to make a product or procedure for which a patent has been requested in the same application, remains unchanged. Lastly, on interoperability, the MEPs approved a compromise amendment tabled jointly by Piia-Noora Kauppi and the German Christian Democrat Klaus-Heiner Lehne, stipulating that the Member States must ensure that licenses are available to use a computer-developed invention patented under reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions.
“I am not completely satisfied”, Piia-Noora Kauppi said, although she felt the text adopted was “reasonably good”. She said she had negotiated with Michel Rocard at length in order to reach a compromise, but considered the rapporteur's stance “too radical” for her group to support. She hoped “fruitful talks would be held before the plenary session”. Ms Kauppi pointed out that a compromise should be found on exclusions to patentability. In the context of pure software patentability, the text adopted seems “clearer than the Council's common position”.
In reaction to the vote by the Committee on Legal Affairs, Klaus-Heiner Lehne speaks in a press release of a “good compromise between industry and the software sector”. “We now have a balanced solution that respects the interests of the industry and of free software”, the MEP says, adding “the patentability of pure software is not possible”. According to Mr Lehne, the vote in plenary must improve the text.
“This vote opens the door to the dinosaurs of the software sector”, Eva Lichtenberger of Austria and Monica Frassoni of Italy warn in a press release on behalf of the Greens/EFA Group. They denounce the attitude of the members of the EPP-ED and ALDE groups that “consistently voted in favour of adopting the weakest amendments and thus diluted the text in a way that creates maximum legal uncertainty”. They went on to say: “The vote is a major setback for SMEs, and Conservatives and Liberals knew perfectly well what they were doing”.