Parliament Accepts Petitions Against Software Patents
2003/10/01
For immediate Release

• The Eurolinux petition signed by a quarter million European citizens and software professionnals accessible at petition.eurolinux.org/
• The petition signed by 33 leading European computer and software scientists accessible at: www.upgrade-cepis.org/issues/2003/3/up4-3Petition.pdf

The European Commission was first invited to formulate its observations. The speaker was Anthony Howard, the person in charge of drafting the directive proposal in the responsible unit of the Internal Market DG. He was visibly uncomfortable, made no observations on substance, and asked the committee to declare both petitions ineligible because they were intervening in an ongoing legislative process.

The representatives of petitioners were then given 5 minutes each to express their viewpoints. Bernard Lang represented Eurolinux, and Philippe Aigrain spoke for the scientists.

Both thanked the Parliament for its vote, and stressed the importance of keeping its consistency and orientation in the next steps of the legislative process.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were then invited to debate. Willi Rothley (PSE-DE) intervened in a remarkably aggressive tone. As Bernard Lang had mentioned that petitioners had been proud of European democracy at the occasion of the vote, and that he felt then in a kind of festive mood, Mr. Rothley warned that after festive moods come hangovers, and that the second reading might be very different. He also asked the committee to declare the petitions ineligible. Mr. Rothley is Vice-President of the JURI committee and not a member of the Committee of Petitions, but all MEPs are invited to attend meetings and express views on subjects of their interest.

Mrs. Janelly Fourtou (PPE-FR) supported Mr. Rothley's line. She also asked for the petitions to be considered ineligible.

Jan Dhaene (Green, Belgium) and Marco Cappato (NI, Italy) spoke in favour of the petitions, saying that not only were they eligible, but the Committee of Petitions should debate them on substance, as citizens and developers are likely to suffer from the abusive granting of software patents by the EPO.

The meeting Chairman declared that, beyond any possible doubt, the petitions were eligible, because the right to petition on a matter currently under legislation is recognised by the Treaty. However he also decided that, since the intention of petitioners was clearly to intervene in pending legislation, the Petition Commitee should not debate the petitions on substance, but simply transfer them to the committee competent on substance, in this case JURI.

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