2004-12-01 ES Gov't Reaffirms Opposition to Council Patent Agreement
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During a plenary session of the spanish Senate on 1st of December 2004, the industry minister José Montilla answers a question posed by senator Jordi Guillot about Spain's position on the EU Council's software patent agreement of the 18th of May 2004. Montilla confirms Spain's opposition against the Council text, which he says ingores the Parliament's amendments and extends subject matter beyond what is permissible under the current law. Moreover Montilla expresses the expectation that the Council Agreement might not be adopted because some countries seem to be backing away from it.
Montilla's Answer
Senator Jordi Guillot presides the Senate committee on Information and Knowledge Society, from Entesa Catalana de progrés, Iniciativa-per Catalunya -Verds.
Guillot asks the Spanish government about its position on software patents.
Mr. Montilla begins his answer by describing the genesis and process followed by the Directive on patents: co-decision process, May meeting, etc.
Below you find a transcript and quick translation by Juan Antonio Esteban of Mr. Montilla's words:
"[...] the proposal of Directive should have the largest possible social consensus, given its big impact on the IT industry and all other users of IT. Some examples are some regional governments of Spain like Andalucia, Extremadura and Valencia that include open source platforms in their initiatives to promote information society. Moreover, the text debated in the Council does not reflect the general sense derived from the debates in the European Parliament. Also, only a few of the numerous amendments approved by the Parliament, and only those with little modifying effect, have been accepted by the Council. All those were the reasons that led Spanish to vote against the proposal. Delegations of Austria, Belgium and Italy abstained and, since the blocking minority was not reached, the formal common position is due to be adopted by a future Council of Ministers.
However, it is still possible that some delegations change the position that they took in May. This modification should be formally announced in a COREPER. If this would happen, we could reach a blocking minority and therefore the common position would not be reached and the text would go back to the working group. Otherwise, if the text is finally agreed upon, it will be sent to Parliament for a second reading.
In any case, either if the text goes back to the working group or is sent to the Parliament for a second reading, Spain will maintain its position, consisting that the Directive should not have as a result the widening of the matters subject to patentability.
The will of the Government is that those inventions that are not patentable before the approval of the Directive should continue being excluded from protection of the patent legislation after the Directive takes effect.
In summary, Spain will continue defending that patents protect inventions that effectively add a significant contribution to the state of the art, allowing the patent system to fulfill its true function of promoting innovation and technological development apart from being a valuable instrument for sharing technical information."
Original Spanish text of the Interpellation
Senate document with the interpellation text in [ HTML | PDF ]
- Senado, B.O.C.G. Serie I Núm. 127 29 nov 2004 Pàg. 18 670/000026 PRESIDENCIA DEL SENADO De acuerdo con lo previsto en el artículo 191 del Reglamento del Senado, se ordena la publicación en el BOLETIN OFICIAL DE LAS CORTES GENERALES de la interpelación presentada por don JORDI GUILLOT MIRAVET, del Grupo Parlamentario Entesa Catalana de Progrés, sobre los planes del Gobierno en relación con el «software» libre de patentes, incluida en el orden del día de la sesión plenaria del día 1 de diciembre de 2004. Palacio del Senado, 23 de noviembre de 2004. --P. D., Manuel Cavero Gómez, Letrado Mayor del Senado. A la Mesa del Senado Jordi Guillot i Miravet, Senador por Barcelona, perteneciente al Grupo Entesa Catalana de Progrés, al amparo de lo establecido en el artículo 170 del Reglamento de la Cámara, solicita la tramitación de la siguiente interpelación al Gobierno. Exposición de motivos El pasado 18 de mayo, el Consejo de Competitividad de la Unión Europea aprobó una propuesta de directiva sobre patentabilidad del software. Esta propuesta está basada en la realizada por la presidencia de turno irlandesa, con pequeños cambios poco relevantes desde el punto de vista práctico. El texto aprobado supone, caso de terminar el trámite de codecisión, la introducción de las patentes de software en Europa. En la votación en que se aprobó la delegación española votó en contra y se abstuvieron Italia, Bélgica, Dinamarca y Austria, lo que no llegó a suponer una minoría de bloqueo. La propuesta de directiva aprobada volverá al Parlamento europeo para una segunda lectura, salvo que en sede parlamentaria no se corrija la decisión del Consejo, el daño a la innovación tecnológica en Europa puede ser irreparable si se permite la patentabilidad del software. Por otra parte y según coincidieron varios expertos en el Foro del Conocimiento celebrado en el SIMO (Feria Internacional Multimedia y Comunicaciones), el «software» libre será una alternativa real al «software» propietario en el medio plazo para las Administraciones Públicas y las empresas, según coincidieron varios expertos. Carlos Fernández Gallo, del Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio, aseguró que «se está produciendo un movimiento en las multinacionales del sector que consideran que pueden tener un nicho en el mercado si desarrollan productos basados en «software» libre. Esto produce un efecto dominó, de modo que las empresas pequeñas y medianas están empezando a utilizar «software» abierto; esto implica que se considera una alternativa real y en la Administración estos movimientos generan preguntas y dudas.» Por esto se presenta la siguiente interpelación al Gobierno: ¿Cuáles son los planes del Gobierno a corto, medio y largo plazo, sobre el software libre de patentes? Palacio del Senado, 22 de noviembre de 2004. --Jordi Guillot Miravet.
Comments
Montilla seems to be saying that
- Poland has announced an intention to change a position which it held in May.
- Poland has not yet formally transmitted its position to Coreper.
- Spain encourages Poland and other countries to take the latter step.
Hereby Montilla reaffirms that his government will not cooperate with the Dutch Council Presidency in its attempts to form a new qualified majority without Poland.
However the Spanish government, too, has so far not submitted very clear positions to the Council, apart from a "No" in a vote. Spain is free to submit a document to the Council and clearly state how they want to set the limits of patentability with regard to software. This could provide a leading position for others to rally around. The main reason for the failure of May 18th was that only the German government provided, and then in the last minute deserted, such a (fake) leading position.
As long as no government is taking leadership, the diplomats in the Council will see little reason to back away from an agreement which, however deceptive its contents and the circumstances of its conclusion, at least keeps the Council's machinery running.