Brussels, 28/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (UEAPME) condemns the failure of the parliamentary committee on legal affairs to unequivocally prevent software patenting. On behalf of UEAPME, in a press release, its General Secretary Hans-Werner Müller describes the committee's vote as an “advantage for small and medium-sized enterprise”. The association calls on the EP to reverse the parliamentary committee's decision taken during the July plenary and to “send a powerful signal that a European patent for software is not an option”. The deadline for submitting amendments to the draft report by French Socialist Michel Rocard is 29 June. The plenary debate is planned for 5 July with voting on 6 July. UEAPME considers software patenting “would strengthen the monopolisation of the software sector, undermine interoperability and act as a barrier to innovation”. It considers that the rapporteur's amendments to the Council's common position would have contributed to clarify the definition of what can be patented and what cannot. It condemns the “cacophony of disinformation” on the part of the major industrial lobbies that have obscured the general consensus on the need to prevent software patenting. Last week, the legal affairs committee rejected the majority of Mr Rocard's amendments (see EUROPE 8974). The campaign called “Economic Majority against Software Patents” is organising a conference on this issue at the EP in Brussels on 29 June.