European software patents row continues

A tangle of European parliamentary procedure has given the Linux lobby a breather in its tussle with MEPs over the proposed European Union law on software patents.

Tempers are frayed and accusations are flying between MEPs and the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FEII).

The MEPs claim to represent the interests of small software companies and large vendors of proprietary software such as Microsoft, while the FEII lobbies on behalf of engineers of both open source and proprietary software.

The European Commission's Proposal for a Directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions, which has been in the making since 1997 and was published in February 2002, was due to go to a vote in the European Parliament late last month.

But it has been rescheduled for September, giving both camps another three weeks before the summer recess in which to reach a compromise proposal.

Arlene McCarthy, MEP for North West England, who is report writer for the proposal, claimed that the aim is to establish clear guidelines that restrict the European Patent Offices's (EPO's) awards for software patents.

It is also designed to prevent the development of a looser, US-style regime, which critics say stifles competition and innovation, according to McCarthy.

"My concern was that if we do exactly what the EPO has been doing we will end up drifting towards the US. They are already drifting towards too much patentability of software," she said.

In an ideal world the FEII would scrap software patents altogether, but it has settled on lobbying the EU to make sure that its patent law is not too flexible.

This is the same intention claimed by McCarthy and other supporters of the proposal in the EU.

But Hartmut Pilch, president of the FEII, accused McCarthy of misleading the industry over the proposal.

"She presented her proposal as saying what we want to achieve, but in her small print is the exact opposite of what she says she wants to achieve," he said.

The proposal is also intended to harmonise existing national patent laws across the EU, removing an obstacle to free trade among EU countries.

It argues that companies which develop inventions that have a software element should be able to recover their investment in patent fees.

However, the FEII is worried that loopholes in the current proposal will make it easier for companies to obtain software patents and will create a US-style regime.

Software engineer Tim Jackson insisted that small software companies are against the proposed law.

"They say they are trying to protect the status quo to protect patentability. But they are doing the absolute opposite," he said.

"It's doublespeak. They're hoping people don't read the text of it and see that what they're saying is not what's going to happen."