EU software patents law blocked again

04-02-2005

by Charlie Taylor

The proposed EU directive on software patentability, which would lay down rules for the patenting of computer-implemented inventions, has been delayed again.

The aim of the Computer-Implemented Inventions directive was to harmonise existing patent legislation by removing barriers to trade in patented products within the EU.

Under the proposed legislation, companies in Europe would be allowed to protect software but would not be permitted to patent Internet business methods. In the US, this is possible and companies such as Amazon.com have used the law to protect services such as their "one-click" e-shopping service.

The proposed law was a central plank in the Lisbon Agenda, which aims to make Europe the most competitive economic zone in the world by 2010. However, the bill has been hotly debated since it was first put forward in September 2003 and member states have been unable to reach agreement even though it has been amended by parliament on several occasions.

On Wednesday, the EU Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee reviewed the bill once more and recommended that it be re-written thereby delaying the directive until next year.

The dispute over the proposed bill can be seen as a David and Goliath type struggle between small and big business. In essence, the directive's detractors, which include small firms and Open Source advocates, argue that the directive will stifle software R&D. On the contrary, those in favour of the law, a list that includes large corporations such as Philips and Nokia, say that tighter software patent laws are needed to protect innovation.

In order to appease critics, the EU initially adopted a number of amendments designed to ensure that patents would not be issued for pure software, thus seeking to address concerns expressed by the open source community. It also sought a strict definition of "invention" as a contribution to the state of the art in a technical field. To deserve a patent, a technical contribution was to be new, non-obvious and susceptible to industrial application. However, most of the Parliament's amendments were rejected leaving the directive in limbo until last December when it looked as though member states had reached a compromise until Poland voted against its adoption.