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#nCr: Proposals slammed by MEPs from all sides

#kWa: More Background Information

#dca: Media contacts

#otF: About the FFII

#nWW: Permanent URL of this Press Release

#MEP: MEP

#PSE: PES

#mbe: Parliament Overruled by Patent Office Administrators

#ien: Council Ignores Elected Representatives

#WFi: Council and Commission Failed to do their Homework

#ici: Patent Administrators Not Interested in %(q:Harmonisation and
Clarification)

#mSW: Council Moves Highlight Lack of Democracy in the EU

#eWU: Irish Presidencey Protecting US Companies from EU Competition

#atW: Anne Van Lancker, a Belgian MEP of the Socialist group, notes that the
civil servants who are supposed to abide by this directive are now the
ones who can write their own laws:

#anj: The Council not only ignores the European Parliament in this matter,
but adds to the insult by going even further than the Commission: in
addition to making the usage of patented algorithms and business
methods in computer programs an infringement, they also propose to
forbid their publication, by allowing direct claims to information
entities (also known as %(q:program claims)).

#CeW: Given that the current Council proposal was written behind closed
doors by patent office administrators, this unworldly outcome should
not surprise anyone, unfortunately.

#raW: Pernille Frahm, Danish member and Vice-Chairwoman of the GUE/NGL
group, finds that the European Commission and Council are abusing
their functions and failing to play their role in EU legislation:

#fue: The patent administrators in the Commission and Council are abusing
the legislative process of the EU.

#oeh: Their convoluted and misleading Patent Newspeak, negotiated in
intransparent backroom dealings, is an insult to the European 
Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee
of Regions and the innumerable experts and stakeholders who have
engaged in serious investigations on this directive project with us. 
Not only did the Commission and Council fail to do their own homework,
they are now also attempting to throw away all the hard work that the
elected legislators did for them, without even trying to respond to
the concerns which have been raised.

#toa: The Council working party has so far completely failed to address the
problems which the European Parliament's Cultural and Industrial
Affairs committees tried to solve.  They behave in the same way as the
Legal Affairs Committee behaved last year, and we can expect that they
will fail in the same way.

#tec: It is clear that the national patent officials in the Council do not
want %(q:harmonisation) or %(q:clarification). They merely want to
secure the interests of the patent establishment. If they don't get
what they want, they simply bury the directive project and try to find
other ways to get around the existing law, whose clarity is so painful
to them.

#jWW: Johanna Boogerd-Quaak, a Dutch member of the European Liberal,
Democrat and Reform Party, indicates that Ireland seems to be playing
lapdog for the US:

#uWl: I'm under the impression that the Irish Presidency has buckled under
the interests of American Companies. A handful of big American
Companies may actually profit from software patents, but it is a very
bad deal for innovation in European SMEs.  Additionally, the Council
is showing contempt for parliamentary democracy.  We must make sure
that after the elections there will again be a majority in the
European Parliament that is willing to show its teeth.

#itu: More than 20 parliamentarians have signed a %(ca:Call for Action)
which points out that %(q:patent professionals in various governments
and organisations are now trying to use the EU Council of Ministers in
order to sidestep parliamentary democracy in the European Union) and
urges the Council to %(q:refrain from any counter-proposals to the
European Parliament's version of the draft, unless such
counter-proposals have been explicitely endorsed by a majority
decision of the member's national parliament).

#Edg: The powerful COREPER committee of EU member states' Permanent
Representatives in Brussels has provisionally agreed on a new draft
for the controversial Software Patent directive, overruling opposition
from Germany, Belgium, Denmark and Slovakia.

#Wjm: The new draft rejects all of the European Parliament's limiting
amendments, and is described by FFII as %(q:the most uncompromisingly
pro-patent text yet).

#ima: Technically, the decision by COREPER on Wednesday is only a
%(q:forecast) of the final decision, to be confirmed at the
Competitiveness Council of Ministers on 17-18 May.  Until that date,
Member states can still change their minds (and their votes).

#fWs: Support for the text at a political level in some states is still said
to be quite soft; and decisions brokered in Coreper do fall apart
(last year's discussions on the Community Patent, for example).

#Won: The Coreper text goes further than the text of the European Commission
of 2002 in legalising software patents.  In 2002 the Commission had
agreed, in difficult negotiations between DG Internal Market
(Bolkestein) and DG Informations Societey (Liikanen) not to allow
program claims.  Now it seems that DG Information Society has rolled
over to the united pressure of Bolkestein and the Council's patent
administrators.

#gie: A %(ld:leaked document from Bolkestein's DG Internal Market) suggests
that DG Information Society no longer objects to program claims.  This
concession by Liikanen is needed in order to rush the Council working
group proposal through the ministers' session as an %(q:A item), i.e.
a consensus point which does not need any discussion by the ministers.

#rWh: For next week, the FFII is calling for another net strike and a wave
of %(sd:local events and demonstrations).  Even these days people are
demonstrating with banners near the offices of the Commission.

#5Wa: The Council proposal documents 8253/04 and 8253/04 ADD from April 6
are not accessible %(q:due to the sensitive nature of the negotiations
and the absence of an overriding public interest) according to the
Council's General Secretariat.

#tah: %(jm:Letter) written to the Consilium's General Secretariat, appealing
the refusal to publish the 6 April documents.

#oeW: We have provided a %(an:thorough analysis) of the latest Council
%(q:compromise).  The latest version was leaked to us and is
accessible through the %(L) section.

#hai: A %(bv:leaked document from the Austrian Ministry of Technology)
exemplifies the decisionmaking behind the Council's proposal.  
Austrian MEPs of all parties had mostly voted in favor of the
Parliament's amendments.  Othmar Karas, head of the Austrian People's
Party in the EP, had written to the Minister of Technology asking him
not to support the Council position, but did not receive any reply. 
Instead the ministry left all decisions to its patent office, which
has always been a 100% follower of the European Patent Office.

#sno: The Irish Presidency explains on its website that it is %(ms:sponsored
by Microsoft).  %(ie:Ireland) is %(q:the largest software-exporting
country in Europe), thanks to a fiscal policy which makes it a tax
haven for large US companies: it has a tax rate on patent revenues of
0%.

#rcn: More recent news

#Ceo: More Contacts to be supplied upon request

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