A controversial directive which is aimed at governing patentability of computer-origin or implement inventions, including software, passed the European Parliament in late September, but included what ZDNet said were amendments that could mean a win for those who criticized the original proposal.
Called the Directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions, the aim was to make a technical adjustment "to harmonize the way patents are treated by national governments across the EU," ZDNet said. "It seeks to correct a current problem whereby patents may be granted by the European Patent Office, but not enforced in member states, because they cover software or business processes, which are blocked from patenting by existing law. The directive, its proponents argued, would clarify what could and could not be patented, offering clarity for businesses."
Small business groups, software developers, economists, and corporations criticized the original for failing to define patentability limits, "thus allowing any software to be patented," ZDNet said. The two amendments involved defining patentability more clearly, and allowing a patented technique to be used without authorization or royalty if it's needed solely to ensure interoperability, ZDNet added. The second was opposed by a U.S. State Department representative.
And the amendments could also make it hard for the directive to work its way through the rest of the EU's complex lawmaking procedure, the tech news Website continued. In fact, Commissioner Frits Bolkestein has threatened to kill the directive and substitute a plan to negotiate an inter-governmental treaty requiring no democratic scrutiny by way of reworking the European Patent Convention. "If I may be blunt... the process of renegotiation of the European Patent Convention would not require any contribution from this Parliament," he reportedly told the Parliament.
But the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure likes the Parliament-passed version of the new directive. "Now we will have to see," said spokesman Hartmut Pilch to ZDNet, "whether the European Commission is committed to 'harmonisation and clarification', or only to patent owner interests. Yesterday's threats uttered by Bolkestein against the European Parliament suggest the latter."
