[Gllug] Down in the valley something stirred

[Dylan]

On Tuesday 01 June 2004 17:47 pm, Leslie Till wrote:
> This is the reply I received, 21st May, from the DTI regarding an
> email that I sent on the 14th May.
<SNIP>

This reply is amazing, especially when members of the Labour Group in 
Europe take this stance:

<Quoted mail>
Thank you for your recent email to Robert Evans MEP concerning the 
proposed directive on the patentability of computer implemented 
inventions. Robert has asked me to reply on his behalf. 

The European Parliament's Labour Party, along with the majority of the 
Parliament, voted for limits to the patenting of computer-implemented 
inventions. Unfortunately, the Council of Ministers have chosen to 
ignore the views of the Parliament and we are now preparing for some 
very tough negotiations with them. 

However, the Council of Ministers and the Commission will not be able to 
ignore the views of democratically elected Members of the European 
Parliament. I can assure you that the Parliament will defend its 
position and there will be no final law without the agreement of the 
Parliament. If both the Council of Ministers and the European 
Commission refuse to reinsert Parliament's amendments, there will be no 
Directive. Our power on this piece of legislation is very strong, with 
the ability to modify or block the legislation. 

Labour MEP Arlene McCarthy is Parliament's rapporteur for this Directive 
and along with Labour colleagues will continue to defend the position 
of the Parliament which is: -

·        Against patenting of software as in the US. 

·        Europe needs a uniform legal approach to stop the drifting 
towards extending patentability to inventions, which would not have 
been traditionally allowed, and to stop patentability of pure business 
methods, algorithms or mathematical methods. 

·        Software products as such, must not be patented. 

·        Opensource software must be allowed to flourish and the 
Commission must ensure that this Directive does not have any adverse 
effect on opensource software and small software developers.

·        Patents and the threat of litigation must not be used as an 
anti-competitive weapon to squeeze out small companies. 

Furthermore we are supporting a UK campaign for a defence fund for small 
companies to protect themselves from litigation abuse by dominant 
market players.

Thank you again for writing to Robert about this issue.

Yours sincerely

Louise Humphrey

Casework Manager

</Quote>

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