Dutch Parliament wants clarity about softwarepatents

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Translation of an article on WebWereld by Brenno de Winter

Wednesday, 26th January 2005.

The Groenlinks (Greens) and SP (Socialists) parties want clarity about the position of the government regarding software patents soon. A debate may still follow later.

MPs Kees Vendrik (GroenLinks) and Arda Gerkens (SP) asked in a letter to secretary of state Karien van Gennip where she stands in the software patent debate.

"A lot has happened lately", says Arda Gerkens in an explanation. "Resistance is clearly growing. Poland is clearly against and the European Parliament wants to restart the procedure."

In the letter - to which an answer is demanded before noon - the secretary is asked to clarify her position. She also has to say how she intends to handle this new situation with regard to the motion of MP Van Dam.

In that motion, the Parliament concluded that Minister Brinkhorst had misinformed the Parliament. It also called upon the Minister to abstain. If the anwers of Van Gennip are not satisfactory, a debate about software patents will be held this Thursday (tomorrow, that likely means).

Agenda

Earlier this week, the directive was planned to be dealt with in the agriculture Council, but Poland had it removed from the agenda again. The country performed a similar action in December, after which the website ThankPoland.info came to life.

In the meantime, the European Parliament started a motion in order to restart the whole procedure, because the amendments they approved cannot be found back in the final proposal. Additionally, the voting weights have changed because of the expansion of the EU.

Translator's note: The last paragraph should be read (with factual corrections) like this:

In the meantime, the European Parliament started a motion in order to restart the whole procedure because the amendments it adopted in 1st reading have not been taken into account by the Council. Also, voting weights in the Council have changed in November last year because provisions laid out in the Threaty of Nice took effect.