[FYI] Matthew Broersma : Software patent limits 'go too far'

["Axel H Horns" <axel.h.horns@gmx.net>]

<http://www.zdnet.co.uk/print/?TYPE=story&AT=39116709-39020651t-10000 
022c>  

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http://news.zdnet.co.uk/
Story URL: 
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39116709,00.htm


Software patent limits 'go too far'  

Matthew Broersma  

September 26, 2003, 17:50 BST  

The European Parliament may have ruined its opportunity to reform the 
EU's software patents system with Wednesday's vote to approve the 
Directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions, 
according to a patent law expert.  

The decision to adopt several amendments to the highly controversial 
directive, fundamentally altering its effects, is likely to lead to 
the directive's withdrawal by the European Commission, according to 
Alex Batteson, IT expert at British intellectual property law firm 
Bristows. He suggested that this might not be a bad thing, since 
patent reform could then be formulated by patent law specialists, 
without the need for democratic scrutiny.  

"It may sound undemocratic, but the amended proposals arguably 
demonstrate that the issues being debated here are too complex to be 
left to the European Parliament, which can hardly be expected to have 
in-depth expertise in patent matters," Batteson said in a statement. 
"The amendments certainly appear to have irritated Frits Bolkestein 
at the Commission and he may decide to abandon the directive in 
favour of a renegotiation of the European Patent Convention. This 
would take the issue out of the hands of the Parliament and give it 
to national delegations of patent experts."  

[...]

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