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Euro Patent Restart Demand Repeated by Parliament

Posted by Zonk on from the once-more-into-the-breach dept.

sebFlyte writes "ZDNet UK is reporting that the European Parliament's Conference of Presidents has ratified and repeated the demands of the Parliament for the computer-implemented inventions directive to be sent back to the drawing board, even though the Commission has refused to re-start it after previous demands. From the article: "It is not certain that the Commission will comply with the request of the Parliament, nor that it will use the opportunity to draft a good text ... The new Commission is not obliged to follow the Parliament's request and they might still try to keep all options open and ask the Council to adopt the agreement of last May without a new vote, so as to gain even more options for themselves."

9 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. Profit Anyone? by LordPhantom · · Score: 5, Interesting

    FTA [i]Hugo Lueders, the director of public policy at pro-patent organisation CompTIA, is also unsure what will happen next. He contends that software patents are needed to ensure that the EU can keep to the goals set by the "Lisbon Agenda" --- that the EU will become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-driven economy by 2010.[/i] Does that comment sound like: 1. Establish Software Patents 2. ??????? 3. Thriving and Inventive Computer Industry (ha!) 4. Profit! to anyone else?!?

  2. Twats by gowen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I consider myself a pro-European Brit, but the intransigence and power of the unelected Commision to act in the face of the elected Parliament makes me foam at the mouth like Norman Tebbit. Is it really so hard for them to see that those with a mandate should be sovereign?

    I want a close and strong European Union -- I just don't want this European Union.

    --
    Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
  3. Re:would this invalidate the GPL? by NiceGeek · · Score: 5, Informative

    no because the GPL'ed software is copyrighted not patented. Not the same thing.

  4. I'd patent Paper-Shuffling... by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I'd patent Paper-Shuffling, foot-dragging and obfuscation, but I see there's Prior Art.

    The players:

    European Parliament's Conference of Presidents

    the Commission

    the Parliament

    The new Commission

    the Council

    Ok, I'm lost. Though I think I can see why nothing's happening.

    It reminds me of a The Committee Game someone wrote on our PDP11 about 25 years ago. (The committee forms to form a plan of action to deal with the nefarious Kally Spaeth, but first they head up to McDonalds for refreshments in the arcane Dodge Dart, and generally it's a lot of running around without actually doing anything about the nefarious Kally Spaeth. I think it was in parody.)

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  5. Re:would this invalidate the GPL? by SmokeHalo · · Score: 5, Informative
    There's a difference between a patent and a copyright. Berkeley Labs has a nice "noob" summary for people like me. From there:
    ...patent protection can apply to the method or process. Remember that copyright protection does not protect the method, but the expression of the method. Patent law, on the other hand, can protect the method as well.
    --
    I'm not good in groups. It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent. - Q
  6. It's highly worrying... by delta_avi_delta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...when a body which purports to be democratic does not listen to those who represent the people. We have spoken, we have shouted, we have sent you nasty emails. If the bill gets carried, it will indicate that the European Union is designed to give people the appearance of having democratic power with the parliament, while the real power resides with commission, who seem emminantly influenced by big business.

  7. OK, question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If the commish ignored the last demand, why would they pay attention to this one? Or is this just for the parliament to make their objections absolutely clear?

    Also, question: Is the EU parliament in the end going to be, or are they right now, as pissed off about this as Slashdot seems to be? I mean, whether the parliament cares about patents or not, you'd think. In the U.S. if a branch of government got outright snubbed like this they'd probably wind up doing everything in their power to kill the idea of software patents forever, even if they didn't really care about software patents, just out of spite

  8. Is EU really democratic? by Husgaard · · Score: 5, Informative
    I think this is one of the worst cases showing the democratic problems in the EU.

    Nobody wanted this in the first place - except patent lawyers, patent offices and a few large software companies.

    Before the directive was proposed by the European Commission, software patents were rejected twice by governments at international diplomat conferences on the change of the European Patent Convention.

    Before the directive was proposed the European Commission held a public hearing. 91% of those responding were against software patents. 47% of the rest were patent lawyers and patent offices.

    When the European Commission proposed the directive they sent out a press release saying the directive was to make software less patentable (liars!).

    The only elected institution in EU is the European Parliament. Here the proposed directive was amended to not allowing unlimited patentability of all software and business metods.

    Later the European Counsil amended the directive again, undoing most of the amendments the the Parliament did.

    And now the European Commission and the Counsil (both non-elected, but appointed) are pressing to go through with the directive, completely ignoring the rights of the European Parliament.

  9. Re:What the ?????? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The EU explains itself:

    http://europa.eu.int/institutions/index_en.htm
    Take a look at the dropdown box in the upper right side of your browser window for different languages.