The European Parliament yesterday drastically altered the proposed directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions. A long summer of intensive lobbying by an impressive European alliance of open source advocates, economists and CEOs of small and medium-sized businesses has paid off.

One of the great fears about software patents, the extension to business methods like Amazon's one-click shopping, is effectively answered by the new Recital 13a. This states: "A computer-implemented business method, data processing method or other method in which the only contribution to the state of the art is non-technical cannot constitute a patentable invention."

In itself, software is excluded from patentability. So are any forms of information processing, handling and presentation. According to Recital 13d, only computer-implemented inventions that directly affect programmable apparatus can be patented, for example software applied in washing machines and mobile phones.

Another important victory for the broad alliance against software patents is the new Article 2b, which requires inventions to make a technical contribution, be new, non-obvious, and capable of industrial application. And the amended article 4 forbids the use of non-technical characteristics to judge if there is a technical contribution, a practice that had allowed the European Patent Office to decree that anything was technically innovative. Last but not least, interoperability is excepted from possible patent infringement.

The final vote showed 361 votes in favour, 157 against and 28 abstentions on the legislative resolution. The Green Party and GUE voted against the directive, in spite of succeeding in getting many amendments accepted.

According to FFII, the day before the vote the responsible Commissioner Frits Bolkestein had threatened that the Commission and the Council would withdraw the directive proposal should the Parliament vote for the amendments that it supported today.

"It remains to be seen whether the European Commission is committed to 'harmonisation and clarification' or only to patent owner interests", said Hartmut Pilch, president of FFII. "This is now our directive too. We must help the European Parliament defend it."

FFII Press release
http://swpat.ffii.org/news/03/plen0923/

Consolidated version of the vote (24.09.2003)
http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/eubsa-swpat0202/plen0309/resu/index.en.ht...