2004-10-19 DE Christian Democrat Motion against EU Council, for EU Parliament Position on Software Patents

--> [ deutsch ] [ Council vs EP | Reversal | News ]

See German version for details, more here later.

Synopsis

The Christian Democrats, largest group in the German federal parliament, have joined forces with the other party groups (liberals, greens, part of social democrats) in a joint fight of the parliament against the ministerial patent bureaucracy, similar to what we have seen in the Netherlands.

The Christian Democrats in particular ask that the technical contribution for which patent protection is sought must be one in the field of applied natural science, and that there must not be any claims that cover programs as such, as they find is the case in the Council's article 5.

This marks a turn of the Christian democrats away from the line of their EP shadow rapporteur Joachim Wuermeling, who in May had hailed the Council line and attacked that of the Parliament.