[Gllug] Re: EU Software Patent Legislation (urgent)

[Chris Bell]

Hello,
   This is a reply to an email I posted on Thursday May 13, perhaps the
message is getting through.

From: linda SMITH <cmoraes at europarl.fsnet.co.uk>

> 
> On Tue 01 Jun, linda SMITH wrote:
> 
> 
> Thank you for your email.
> 
> The European Parliament, has voted for limits to the patenting of
> computer-implemented inventions. The Member States i.e. the Council of
> Ministers have chosen to ignore Parliament's views, which has disappointed
> us greatly and we are now preparing for some very tough negotiations with
> them.
> 
> However, fortunately the Council of Ministers and the Commission cannot
> ignore our views as 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 we can modify it or block it if we choose to
> do so.
> 
> The position of my colleague Arlene McCarthy  as Rapporteur and that of the
> Labour MEPs remains unchanged and in the negotiations she will be defending
> Parliaments position.
> 
> · We are not in favour of patenting 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.
> 
> Yours sincerely
> 
> Claude Moraes MEP
> 65 Barnsbury Street, London, N1 1EJ
> Telephone: 0207 609 5005
> Fax: 0207 607 8299
> Web: www.claudemoraes.net



-- 
Chris Bell

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