2005-05-27 Council Software Patent Meeting
Below you can find the official attachés (civil servants/diplomats) report of the Council Working Party on Intellectual Property (Patents)" meeting of 27 May 2005, where they discussed the software patents directive.
Delegates of countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and Hungary actively promote the most uncompromising and crude pro-patent views, some of them in gross violation of obligations toward their national parliament. Spain and Austria follow the lead of the patent extremists and show no support for patent-critical !MEPs from their countries. UK showed a certain flexibility and refinement in promoting its pro-patent agenda. Only Poland clearly supports the amendments that are needed to exclude pure software from patentability. Italy seems willing to follow Rocard on many amendments. Malta sometimes follows more patent-critical delegations. Luxemburg supports interoperability. Denmark largely abstains from the discussion due to "sensitivity" of the issues.
