EU Parliament appears set to reject new patent laws

BRUSSELS — Members of the European Parliament appeared ready Wednesday to reject a controversial proposed law that critics say would allow for the widespread patenting of software.

In a crucial vote later Wednesday, MEPs were expected to throw out a directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions, bringing to an end a four-year battle that has pitted big high-technology companies against smaller vendors and the open source community.

Trouble emerged for the directive Tuesday evening after one of the biggest political groups, the European People’s Party, announced that it would vote for rejection rather than risk approving a package of amendments to the legislation that would drastically restrict the scope of the patent regime.

Both supporters and opponents of the directive said rejection would be the best result, even though it would mean the European Union did not have a harmonized patent regime like that of the U.S.

The European Commission said Tuesday that it would not present a new proposal for the legislation if the Parliament decides to reject it.

“Rejection would be a wise decision because [approving the directive] could have narrowed the scope of patenting,” said Mark MacGann, director-general of the European Information Technology and Communications Association (EICTA), an industry group representing big vendors including Microsoft, Nokia, and Siemens.

EICTA has been opposing a package of changes to the directive, supported by a wide range of MEPs, which would try and ensure that patents could not apply to software including data processing. EICTA and other industry groups argue these restrictions went too far and would deny patent protection to a wide range of innovative devices using computer in their operation.

“If the European Parliament votes to reject, it’s a vote for the status quo,” MacGann said. “Our members will be able to continue to patent their inventions as they do now through national patent offices and the European Patent Office.”

EICTA would continue to make the case for patents and for their contribution to innovation in the EU, he added.

The possibility of a rejection was also welcomed by the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), which has led the campaign against the directive. Rejection would be “the logical way to go,” said Erik Josefsson, FFII’s Brussels representative.

He disagreed with the claim that rejecting the directive would simply allow companies to obtain patent protection through the national patent offices and courts.

“If you go into litigation over software patents in Sweden, you lose,” Josefsson said.

The proposed directive is designed to allow patenting for new inventions that computers to work, such as mobile phones, washing machines and medical devices. Opponents have argued that it would give firms with large patent holdings an effective monopoly over many common software programs, such as those used in Web sites and computer games. Small software developers would be exposed to a flurry of patent lawsuits which they could not afford to defend themselves against.