PRESS RELEASE -- [ Europe / economy / ICT ]
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European Parliament rejects mutual patent recognition in the EU
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Members of the European Parliament successfully opposed a move by a
MEP to jeopardise the annual Lisbon report. He had proposed to ask the
Commission for mutual recognition of patent law, which would have
resulted in a flood of patent suits all over Europe, lower quality
standards, and worsen the software patents problem.
Strasbourg (March 15, 2006) -- The new round of the European debate on
patent policy has started with a first victory for anti-software
patent campaigners. A majority of the European Parliament today voted
against calling on the European Commission for a legislative proposal
to stipulate the mutual recognition of national patents by the 25
member states of the EU. Such mutual recognition would make the
patents that the national patent office of any EU country grants
enforceable against companies in all other member states.
The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) and
Florian Mueller, the founder of the NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign,
lobbied MEPs to vote against the related passage of a proposed
resolution, stressing that the mutual recognition of national patents
"would result in a flood of patent suits all over Europe, lower
quality standards, and ever more software patents", among other things
because patent applicants would "shop around" to find patent offices
that are most willing to grant patents which would then be valid in
the entire EU.
The call for mutual recognition of patents that had been sponsored by
Klaus Heiner Lehne MEP. Lehne, a German conservative, holds a job as a
lobbyist with the law firm Taylor Wessing, which handles many cases of
patent litigation especially in his home town of Dusseldorf and
represents large corporations in many areas of commercial law.
Mueller called the outcome of today's vote in the European Parliament
"excellent news from Strasbourg". His recently started blog also
explains the voting mechanism, a so-called split vote, that prevented
the text from going through as proposed by Lehne. Mueller published
large parts of a memorandum that Lehne had written to other EU
politicians late last year and in which the MEP claimed that the
mutual recognition of national patents would make Europe more
competitive. By calling on the European Commission to make a proposal
for the mutual recognition of patents, the European Parliament would
not have taken a final legislative decision today, but such a call
"would have been a disappointing start [for anti-software patent
campaigners] with respect to the EU’s new patent policy initiative,
and it would have had negative effects for the future", he added.
Benjamin Henrion of the FFII welcomes the European Parliament's
decision because this way the parliament "keeps all options open for
the future of the European patent system" in light of the European
Commission's ongoing consultation on patent policy, which is
preparatory to new legislative proposals that EU observers expect the
Commission to put forward after the summer. Henrion said it would have
been "a pity if Lehne's proposal had slipped through as one of 67
items of a resolution on the EU's Lisbon Agenda for innovation and
economic policy".
Rufus Pollock, director of the FFII UK, calls on companies and
individuals who are concerned about software patents to participate in
the EU's consultation on patent policy: "Today was a great result for
us, but there will be many more and bigger challenges ahead as the
Commission prepares new proposals concerning patent policy. It's very
important that many companies and individuals write to the Commission
before the deadline on March 31. Answering the Commission's
questionnaire is tricky, but the FFII has set up a Web site that
provides further explanation at http://consultation.ffii.org/, or
people can also use Florian's position paper and submit it in their
name."
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References
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Today's resolution of the European Parliament was based on motion
B6-0162/2006, which had been jointly introduced by the chairpersons of
the three largest groups in the parliament (EPP-ED, PES, ALDE).
At the request of EPP-ED and ALDE, paragraph 43 was subject to a split
vote. The proposed text without the words "small" and "mutual
recognition" was carried, while a majority voted against proposals to
insert those words.
Piia-Noora Kauppi MEP took the initiative in the EPP-ED group meeting
yesterday evening to have her group support the text which was
carried today.
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Background Information
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* FFII Lehne page:
http://wiki.ffii.org/KlausHeinerLehneEn
* FFII consultation website
http://consultation.ffii.org
* Commission consultation
http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/indprop/patent/consultation_en.htm
* Mueller blog:
http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/florian-mueller-blog
* Mueller consultation paper
http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/florian-mueller-blog/position-paper/
* Permanent link to this press release
http://wiki.ffii.org/MutualRecognition060315En
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Contact Information
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Benjamin Henrion, FFII Brussels, +32-2-4148403, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Florian Mueller, +49-8151-21088, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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About FFII -- http://www.ffii.org
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The FFII is a not-for-profit association registered in twenty European
countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the
public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, open standards.
More than 850 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have
entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions
concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data
processing.
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