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EU Council and Software Patents
Commemorate Banana Union Day

Watching, Understanding and influencing the Council of Ministers of the European Union, especially with regard to policy fields close to Software and Patents.

Competitiveness Council members

The Competitiveness Council is an organ of the Council of Ministers which is in charge of negotiations on the swpat directive. The following are national members.


Competitiveness Council

PARTICIPANTS

The Governments of the Member States and the European Commission were
represented as follows:

Belgium:
Ms Fientje MOERMAN
Minister for Economic Affairs, Energy, Foreign Trade and Scientific Policy

Denmark:
Mr Bendt BENDTSEN
Minister for Economic Affairs, Trade and Industry
Mr. Helge SANDER
Minister for Science, Technology and Development

Germany:
Mr Edelgard BULMAHN:
Federal Minister for Education and Research
Mr Georg Wilhelm ADAMOWITSCH
State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Labour

Greece:
Mr Apostolos TSOCHATZOPOULOS
Minister for Development
Mr Dimitrios DENIOSOS
General Secretary in charge of Research

Spain:
Mr Juan COSTA CLIMENT
Minister for Science and Technology
Mr Ramón DE MIGUEL Y EGEA
State Secretary for European Affairs

France:
Ms Nicole FONTAINE
Minister attached to the Minister for Economic Affairs, Finance and
Industry, with responsibility for Industry
Ms Claudie HAIGNERE
Minister attached to the Minister for Youth, Education and Research, with
responsibility for Research and New Technology

Ireland:
Mr Peter GUNNING
Deputy Permanent Representative

Italy:
Mr Rocco BUTTIGLIONE
Minister without portfolio, Minister for Community Policies
Mrs Letizia MORATTI
Minister for Education, the Universities and Research
Mr Mario VALDUCCI
State Secretary for Production Activities

Luxembourg:
Mr Henri GRETHEN
Minister for Economic Affairs, Minister for Transport
Ms Erna HENNICOT-SCHOEPGES
Minister for Culture, Higher Education and Research, Minister for Public
Works

Netherlands:
Mr Laurens Jan BRINKHORST
Minister for Economic Affairs
Ms M. J. van der HOEVEN
Minister for Education, Cultural Affairs and Science

Austria:
Mr Martin BARTENSTEIN
Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Labour
Ms Elisabeth GEHRER
Federal Minister for Education, Science and Culture

Portugal:
Mr Carlos COSTA NEVES
State Secretary for European Affairs
Mr Franquelim ALVES
State Secretary to the Minister for Economic Affairs
Mr José PINTO PAIXÃO
State Secretary to the Minister for Science and Higher Education

Finland:
Mr Mauri PEKKARINEN
Minister for Trade and Industry

Sweden:
Mr Thomas ÖSTROS
Minister for Education
Mr Sven-Eric SÖDER
State Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Employment and Communications

United Kingdom:
Lord SAINSBURY of TURVILLE
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science and Innovation

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Commission:

Mr Erkki LIIKANEN
Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information Society
Mr António VITORINO
Member
Mr Frits BOLKESTEIN
Commissioner for Justice and Internal Market
Mr Philippe BUSQUIN
Member

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The Governments of the Acceding States were represented as follows:

Czech Republic:
Mr Miroslav SOMOL
Deputy Minister, Ministry for Industry and Trade

Estonia:
Mr Meelis ATONEN
Minister for Economic Affairs and Communications
Mr Toivo MAIMETS
Minister for Education and Research

Cyprus:
Mr Sotiris SOTIRIOU
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Commerce,
Industry and Tourism

Latvia:
Mr Eduard STIPRAIS
Deputy Permanent Representative

Lithuania:
Mr Nerijus EIDUKEVICIUS
Deputy Minister for Economy
Mr Rimantas VAITKUS
Deputy Minister for Education and Science

Hungary:
Mr Péter GOTTFRIED
Deputy State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Malta:
Mr Edwin VASSALLO
Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs

Poland:
Ms Danuta HÜBNER
Secretary of the Committee for European Integration
Mr Krysztof KRYSTOWSKI
Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Economy, Labour and Social Affairs

Slovakia:
Mr Martin FRONC
Minister of Education

Slovenia:
Mr Matjaz LOGAR
State Secretary

Annotated Links

->FFII UK: Lobbying the Council of Europe
How decisionmaking in the Council works and what this means for the amended software patent directive
->REU/DKPMA 2002/09/23: Änderungsvorschläge zum Softwarepatente-Richtlinienentwurf
The Council of the European Union (CEU) proposes to rewrite some articles of the CEC/BSA proposal of 2002/02/20 in order to take into account various criticisms made by national delegations to the Council's Intellectual Property Working Party, a workgroup consisting of delegates from national patent administrations. This counter-proposal was worked out by the delegates from Denmark, i.e. from the Danish Patent Office (DKPTO), which are presiding over the workgroup during the second half of 2002. The paper is the subject of decision at the Working Party's session on 2002/10/03 in Brussels. We present the paper in tabular comparison with the original CEC/BSA proposal of 2002/02/20. It becomes evident that the DKPTO proposal, while strengthening the rhetorical emphasis on the "technical contribution", creates additional ambiguities and in effect further widens the scope of patentability.
->EU Council call to "Protect Patents for Computer-Implemented Invention"
The European Council apparently no longer wants to "protect innovation", let alone stimulate innovation, but only to "protect patents". This is at least what a few bureaucrats at the March 20/21 Summit inserted into the final document. The ministerial officials of the European Council have in recent years been particularly responsive to interests of large corporate patent departments. At the request of the patent lobby, they proposed go a step further than the European Commission and make publication of program code on the web a direct patent infringement.

see also REU/DKPMA 2002/09/23: Änderungsvorschläge zum Softwarepatente-Richtlinienentwurf and Lenz: Gipfel

->http://kwiki.ffii.de/LenzSwpatconsilium030321En
->TheRegister on Council
->Consilium Mailing List
discussions about the Council and how to influence it
->UK Gov't Promoting Patent Extremism in the European Parliament
The UK Government's Foreign Office is circulating a "briefing to UK MEPs", in which it instructs british members of the European Parliament to back Arlene McCarthy's position and vote (1) against any attempt to define what is technical or otherwise limit what is patentable (2) against Article 6a which allows converters to be written when standards are patented (3) for JURI Art 5 which forbids publication of descriptions of patented inventions on the Net. The intervention of the government comes at a moment where McCarthy has shown nervous reactions in view of dwindling support in her party group. The government statement can be attributed to the UK Patent Office and its policy working group, consisting mainly of patent lawyers from large corporations. This group has been determining the software patent policy of the UK and largely also of the EU during recent years.
->Germany and Software Patents
Institutions of the German Patent Movement

Questions, Things To Do, How you can Help

?!?Defend (and improve) the directive as amended by the European Parliament.
Obtain national support for the Europarl's amendments to the directive.

See also the relevant projects.

see also EU Parliament Votes for Real Limits on Patentability

Contact politicians in your country in order to influence the position of the European Council. Subscribe to / help administrate one of the following national mailing lists or found your own national mailing list:

Note that you can help defend the European Parliament's Directive also at the international level. One of the main weapons of the patent lawyer lobby will be the TRIPs Fallacy, i.e. pushing for false interpretations of the TRIPs treaty and asserting these in the WTO or threatening to do so. Such threats, even if completely groundless, will serve patent administrators in the council as a pretext for defacing the Parliament's directive or withdrawing the directive project from the EU.

[ Patent Movement in the European Union | Patent Movement Activities in the name of the European Commission | EU Council and Software Patents | Europa-Parlament und Softwarepatente | ESC and Software Patents | European Patent Office: High Above Legality ]
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