[ILUG] Patricia McKenna replies to Software Patents issue

[Justin Mason]

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Patricia McKenna (and other Greens) are *great* on this issue;
well on top of it, BTW.  The Greens/EFA party line is firmly
on our side.

The other parties should really take heed...

- --j.

Frank Duignan writes:
> Seems that all may not be lost this Monday, next battle in the autumn
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: 	Re: Form Results
> Date: 	Fri, 14 May 2004 17:38:24 +0200
> From: 	Patricia Mckenna <pmckenna at europarl.eu.int>
> To: 	<fduignan at esatclear.ie>
> 
> Dear Frank
>  
> Many thanks for your email. This issue was indeed dealt with, or so we 
> thought, in September last and it is very unfortunate that it rears its 
> head again. You can however rest assured that I will be releasing a 
> statement about the matter next Monday.
>  
> The Greens/Efa in European Parliament do share your concerns. The 
> "directive on the patentability of computer implemented inventions", 
> better known als software patents directive, is indeed on the agenda of 
> the Council Competitiveness on 17/18 May, and unfortunately it is a 
> A-item. This means that this point will be adopted without debate... 
> unless a country would oppose this of course.
> 
> The Greens/Efa deeply regret that the current text is very different 
> from the text adopted by the European parliament last September : it 
> allows full patentability of software and puts extremely low 
> interopreability requirements (art6) and reintroduces programme claims 
> (art 5) which equal to patent software as such.
> 
> The Greens/Efa in European parliament have been at the forefront of the 
> struggle against software patents since the draft directive was sent to 
> EP. We tabled amendments in the Culture committe, the Industry 
> committee, the legal affairs committee and in plenary. Many of our 
> amendments are integrated in the position of the Parliament.
> 
> We also organised several conferences against software patents with many 
> software SMEs such as Opera, MySQL, Graphic Convertor etc.. You will 
> find more details on http://www.greens-efa.org go to the icone software 
> patents which is on the right side of the screen.
> 
> At this stage the Green/Efa MEPs can only deplore the situation with the 
> Council which does not take the opinion of EP in account, although this 
> is a codecision procedure, but we will meet again next autumn for the 
> second reading of the directive where the Greens will certainly ask that 
> Parliament keeps a clear position against software patents - or we will 
> vote against the directive.
>  
> Best Wishes
>  
> Patricia McKenna MEP
>  
> 
> Patricia McKenna MEP
> Assistant: Pauleen Colligan
> European Parliament
> Rue Wiertz, 1047 Brussels,
> Belgium
> Tel:  +32 2 284 5140
> Fax: +32 2 284 9140
> 
>  >>> <fduignan at esatclear.ie> 05/14/04 10:48 >>>
> name: Frank Duignan
> email: fduignan at esatclear.ie
> redirect: http://www.pmckenna.com/home.html
> Comments%252FQuery: (I previously sent this to your IOL account but
> got no reply)
> Dear Ms. McKenna,
> I am writing with some concern regarding Ireland's stance on software 
> patents.  It would
> appear that the Irish presidency is ignoring the wishes of the European 
> parliament in
> regard to this issue by attempting to repeal all amendments it proposed 
> last September.  A
> meeting of ministers on 17-18 May next is expected to rubber stamp this 
> exercise. "So what?" many
> may ask.  The software patent legislation currently proposed suits 
> larger companies and creates
> a patent minefield for smaller ones.  If voted through all software 
> innovation will require to be
> vetted by legal/patent attorney opinion - a luxury not commonly 
> available to smaller companies.
> The companies that will reap the greatest benefit from this legal 
> environment are mostly non European.
> Why is Ireland doing this?  It would seem that the Irish presidency is 
> more interested in supporting
> US investment in Ireland than fostering native SME's - a short time view 
> in my opinion. 
> As my MEP I am requesting that you raise this matter in the media and 
> with the Department of Enterprise
> Trade and Employment (Intellectual property unit) or indeed with Mary 
> Harney herself.  Further
> information in regard to this may be found at http://swpat.ffii.org.
> Regards,
> Frank Duignan
> 
> How%2Bdid%2Byou%2Blocate%2Bthis%2Bwebsite%253F: Search engine
> user: pmckenna
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