LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: European Union must be firm on software patents 
By Malcolm Harbour and Joachim Wuermeling
Financial Times; Sep 01, 2003

 
>From Malcolm Harbour MEP and Joachim Wuermeling MEP.

Sir, We and our centre-right colleagues from across the European Union wholeheartedly support the pragmatic and measured approach that Frits Bolkestein, European commissioner for internal markets, has taken on the issue of software patents (report, August 28).

In the face of persistent and often personally malicious lobbying by the "open source" lobby, whose arguments have often been emotional rather than factual, we have sought to protect Europe's global competitiveness and encourage innovation.

Doing nothing is not an option. The EU must not go down the road taken by the US (and, it now appears, Japan) in allowing patents for general software and business methods.

The current EU legal framework will not achieve this objective. Inconsistencies in the granting of software patents across EU patent offices are already threatening to undermine the EU's desired position. The new directive reverses this undesirable trend and protects Europe's innovative software industry.

No one has a monopoly of wisdom in patent law. It is shaped by case law resulting from legal challenges. Therefore the proposed directive includes comprehensive safeguards for monitoring the operation of this directive and amending it, if the desired objectives are not met.

Malcolm Harbour Joachim Wuermeling European Parliament