First indications are that the Irish presidency has secured political agreement for a new draft of the controversial software patents directive in a meeting of the Council of Ministers today.
Spain (8) expressly voted against the proposal. Belgium (5), Italy (10) and Austria (4) refused to support the new text. Denmark (3) seemed uneager, but in the end did not stand against the presidency's demand for support.
That made 27 votes refusing to support the text. Had Germany kept its promise to at least abstain, the 37 votes needed to block it would have been achieved, and surpassed by votes from countries like Poland who had apparently been instructed to follow the Germans.
In the initial round of discussions SE, UK, FR, NL, CZ and HU spoke in favour of the Irish proposal.
BE, PL, ES, DK, AT, DE, LV und IT äußerten Vorbehalte.
However a "compromise" proposed by the Commission was apparently enough to bring round the German, Polish and Latvian delegations, whose silence was interpreted as agreement.
That left ES voting against the proposal; and BE, IT, and AT refusing to approve it.
On the key issue of what should and should not count as "technical", and therefore patentable, the Germans had originally proposed the additions shown thus:
2b. A technical contribution means a contribution to the state of the art in a field of technology which is new and not obvious to a person skilled in the art. The technical contribution shall be assessed by consideration of the difference between the state of the art and the scope of the patent claim considered as a whole, which must comprise technical features, irrespective of whether these are accompanied by non-technical features, whereby the technical features must predominate. The use of natural forces to control physical effects beyond the digital representation of information belongs to a technical field. The mere processing, handling, and presentation of information do not belong to a technical field, even where technical devices are employed for such purposes.
Der "Kompromiss" der Kommision schlug vor die folgendermaßen zu kürzen:
2b. A technical contribution means a contribution to the state of the art in a field of technology which is new and not obvious to a person skilled in the art. The technical contribution shall be assessed by consideration of the difference between the state of the art and the scope of the patent claim considered as a whole, which must comprise technical features, irrespective of whether these are accompanied by non-technical features.
Das bedeutet, die einzige wirksame Änderung war die Einfügung des Wortes "neu".
Die Kommission hat weiterhin Änderungen zu Artikel 4 und zu Präambel 13 vorgeschlagen, wobei deren Auswirkungen lediglich kosmetischer Natur sind.
But for whatever reason, this was sufficient to win over the German delegation, and the Poles and Latvians apparently followed.
Although apparently enough to convince ministers, the text remains as uncompromisingly pro-patent as the original Irish draft.
The Polish, Latvian and Danish delegation did not visibly decide for anything. Most other delegations decided in spite of promises to the contrary given by their governments to the parliament or the public.
The text will be presented to the next Council of Ministers (in early June or perhaps later) for formal adoption. It is not yet certain that the Irish Presicendy has secured a real majority.
It is possible that after passing the Council the directive will go into 2nd reading in the newly elected European Parliament this autumn. It is also possible (and advocated e.g. by Olga Zrihen MEP) that it could go into another 1st reading. To re-instate amendments in the European parliament in 2nd reading would require absolute majorities. This is achievable: many of the amendments did achieve this level of support in the first reading. But some of the votes are likely to be very close.
Darum fordert der FFII die Unterstüzter auf, sicher zu gehen dass die MEP Teilnehmer für diese Wahl die tiefe Sorge in dieser Sache auch würdigen.
Der FFII ist ein in München eingetragener gemeinnütziger Verein für Volksbildung im Bereich der Datenverarbeitung. Der FFII unterstützt die Entwicklung öffentlicher Informationsgüter auf grundlage des Urheberrechts, freien Wettbewerbs und offener Standards. Über 500 Mitglieder, 1000 Firmen und 60000 Unterstützer haben den FFII mit der Vertretung ihre Interessen im Bereich der Gesetzgebung zu Software-Eigentumsrechten beauftragt.
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