---------- Forwarded Message ----------- From: "Diego Saravia" <[email protected]> To: Coordinadores de Hipatia <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 08:45:58 -0300 Subject: [hipatia] Fw: FFII: EP Rejects Software Patent Directive, 648 to 14, 18 abstentions Subject: FFII: EP Rejects Software Patent Directive, 648 to 14, 18 abstentions PRESS RELEASE FFII -- [ Europe / economy / ICT ] ================================================================================ Parliament says No to Software Patents ================================================================================ Strasbourg, 6 July 2005 -- The European Parliament today decided by a margin of 648 votes to 14, with 18 absentions, to _reject_ the directive "on the patentability of computer implemented inventions", also known as the software patent directive. This rejection was the logical answer to the Commission's refusal to restart the legislative process in February and the Council's unwillingness to take the will of the European Parliament and national parliaments into account. The FFII congratulates the European Parliament on its clear "No" to bad legislative proposals and procedures. This is a great victory for those who have campaigned to ensure that European innovation and competitiveness is protected from monopolisation of software functionalities and business methods. It marks the end of an attempt by the European Commission and governmental patent officials to impose detrimental and legally questionable practises of the European Patent Office (EPO) on the member states. However the questions created by this practise remain unsolved. FFII believes that the Parliament's work, in particular the 21 cross-party compromise amendments, can provide a good basis on which future solutions, both at the national and European level, can build. Jonas Maebe, FFII Board Member, comments on the outcome of today's vote: "This result clearly shows that thorough analysis, genuinely concerned citizens and factual information have more impact than free ice-cream, boatloads of hired lobbyists and outsourcing threats. I hope this turn of events can give some people faith again in the European decision making process. I also hope that it will encourage the Council and Commission to emulate the European Parliament to improve transparency and the ability of stakeholders to participate in the decision- making process irrespective of their size." Hartmut Pilch, president of FFII, explains why FFII supported the move for rejection in its voting recommendations: In recent days, the big holders of EPO-granted software patents and their MEPs, who had previously been campaigning for the Council's "Common Position", joined the call for rejection of the directive because it became clear that the 21 cross-party amendments championned by Rhoitová, Buzek, Rocard and Duff were very likely to be adopted by the Parliament. It was well noticeable that support for these amendments or a substantial part thereof was becoming the mainstream opinion in all political groups. Yet there would not have been much of a point in such a vote. We rather agree to the assessment of the situation as given by Othmar Karas MEP in the Plenary yesterday: a No was the only logical answer to the unconstructive attitude and legally questionable manuevers of the Commission and Council, by which this so-called Common Position had come about in the first place. The FFII also wishes to thank all those people who have taken the time to contact their representatives either by email, phone or in person. We also want to thank the numerous volunteers who have given so generously of their time and energy. This is your victory as well as the Parliament's. ====================================================================== Background information and further news ====================================================================== * 21 cross-party compromise amendments http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/europarl0309/amends05/komprom0506.en.pdf * FFII voting recommendations for MEPs at today's plenary vote http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/europarl0309/amends05/ffiivotlst050706.pdf * Practise of the European Patent Office http://webshop.ffii.org/ http://swpat.ffii.org/patents/ http://gauss.ffii.org/ * Karas speech in the plenary yesterday http://wiki.ffii.org/Karas05075En * Wallstreet Journal reports prominently about Lehne's conflicts of interest http://wiki.ffii.org/WsjLehne050705En * Stay tuned to our news ticker http://wiki.ffii.org/SwpatcninoEn ====================================================================== Contact information ====================================================================== Hartmut Pilch and Holger Blasum Munich Office info at ffii org tel. +49-89-18979927 Erik Josefsson Brussels Office erjos at ffii org tel. +32-484-082063 Jonas Maebe FFII Belgium jmaebe at ffii org tel. +32-485-369645 Rufus Pollock FFII UK rufus pollock at ffii org uk +44-1223-690423 Gérald Sédrati-Dinet FFII France, Vice President FFII gibus at ffii fr +33-6-60-56-36-45 ------- End of Forwarded Message ------- -- Diego Saravia [email protected] _______________________________________________ lista coordinadores-hipatia [email protected] http://listas.hipatia.info/mailman/listinfo/coordinadores-hipatia www.listas.hipatia.info - [email protected] ------- End of Forwarded Message ------- -- Diego Saravia [email protected]