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News of 2005	MS as SME	Amendments	Tribeka	C4C

2005-05-05: C4C plants article in Sunday Express

Campaign For Creativity managed to plant an article in a British tabloid newspaper which accuses "EU Commissioners" of killing hightech innovation by proposing to limit patentability.

A type-up of an article in the Sunday Express, 5th June 
2005.

New EU law threat to UK software jobs
By Julia Hartley-Brewer
Political Editor

Photo of a clean room
Caption: IN DANGER: British computer chip workers

MEP's are to vote next month on a controversial new EU 
law that could cost thousands of British jobs. 

EU Commissioners have approved a directive which will 
ban European companies from patenting any high-tech 
innovation that uses software.

The ban could affect the makers of many everyday 
consumer products, including mobile telephones, 
televisions, cars and washing machines.

Opponents of the new law fear it will open the 
floodgates to cheap American, Chinese and Indian copies 
of products developed by European firms.

The directive covers all software used by mechanical 
devices, but it will only affect Europe. So while 
China, Indian and the US will keep the protection of 
patents for their home grown companies, European firms
will have no protection at all. 

Small business groups are also alarmed that 
multinational corporations will be able to steal their 
ideas and inventions. Small firms are responsible for 
filing 85% of all UK patents. 

The European Parliament has already urged the 
Commission to change the directive, but EU 
Commissioners have refused and are pushing ahead with
the law. 

British ministers have also backed the directive, which 
was intended to ensure consistency between the laws of 
the EU's member states.

Now only a majority vote by MEP's on July 6 can stop 
the proposal from becoming law. 

Simon Gentry, who runs the Campaign for Creativity, 
said: "Abolishing intellectual property sounds very 
attractive on a superficial level since it will make 
software cheaper and more widely available. But the
implications go far beyond computer software and will 
damage all of the industries in which Europe leads and 
that means jobs will be lost. At the same time, China 
and India are introducing stronger protection for
their own home markets." 

Daniel Doll-Steinberg, whose computer software firm 
Tribeka faces losing all of its marketable value if the 
law goes through, said: "Europe is being very short-
sighted on this. Patents create new products and wealth
and jobs. In the long term they work in everyone's 
interests."

But the Patent Office said: "We believe that the 
directive will help to clarify the current rules for 
patents relating to computer-implemented inventions, 
without extending or restricting the existing range of
patentability. This in turn will aid competitiveness 
across all sectors of the economy and will be of 
particular benefit to small and medium enterprises as 
well as a range of high-tech industries such as 
telecommunications, aerospace and automotive, in which 
Europe currently has a competitive advantage."