Europe moves closer to software patents

LONDON — The European Parliament's legal affairs committee has rejected proposed amendments to European Union's controversial Software Patent Directive, handing a victory to industry giants lobbying for software patent protections.

The decision is a win for big companies like Microsoft Corp., Motorola, Nokia, Philips and Siemens, but amendment supporters said Tuesday (June 21) that the patent battle is far from over.

The full European Parliament must still confirm the vote in early July, when "amendments will be re-introduced," said Rufus Pollock, U.K. coordinator for the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), a Europe nonprofit association promoting competition in software development.

The battle over the Software Patent Directive, which has split the technology industry here, has also fueled a debate over the scope of patents and whether software can be patented in Europe.

The European Information and Communications Technology Industry Association (Eicta), which backs software patents, stressed that the draft directive explicitly excludes patents on "pure software." The pro-patent group added that software patents "will only be granted for inventions of a technical nature."

FFII responded that "software inventions of a technical nature" could include virtually every piece of software — ranging from lines of codes in a computer operating system to a piece of software invented for reducing the number of mouse clicks to speed e-commerce — explained FFII's Pollock. He argued that allowing European software patents would be "disaster to inventions and [to the] economy in Europe." The reason, he added, is that it would make it more difficult for the European software industry to create new applications and programs based on widely software code.

"The irony is that both sides — Eicta and FFII — want clarifications on the law," said Pollock. "And yet too much smokes and mirrors exist in the current proposed directive."

Compared with the U.S. and Japan, which have software patent laws on the books, Europe lacks a harmonized software patent regime. Although the European Patent Office has been issuing patents on software innovations, observers pointed out that enforcement of such patents remains uncertain. The proposed directive is designed to extend European patent protection to cover software innovations and validate the work of the European Patent Office.

Eicta member Sun Microsystems warned that "if Europe adopts a new directive governing the patentability of computer-implemented inventions [also known as software patents], it is vital that it ensures that patents do not prevent software vendors from developing and offering products which are interoperable with patented software."

Therefore, Sun said it "strongly supports provisions which clarify that a software patent cannot be used to prevent software developers from engaging in reverse engineering permitted under the 1991 Software Copyright Directive (91/250/EEC) for interoperability purposes where interfaces/source codes are not published."