European Parliament Probing Approval Of Software Patent Directive

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

11 March 2005

Following the approval by the EU's Competitiveness Council on Monday of the Directive on the Patentability of Computer Implemented Inventions (or Software Patent Directive), the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee has launched an investigation into whether procedural rules were broken by the vote.

According to a ZDNet report on the matter, the JURI meeting, called on Monday night, was told that the EU Presidency would be asked to provide full documentation of the Council meeting in question.

"It would have been better if we had returned to a first reading," Eva Lichtenberger, Austria's Legal Affairs Committee member, announced, observing that:

"After the Commission's restart denial and now the unclear decision in the Council, we are faced with procedural questions rather than having a constructive dialogue on the content of the dossier."

The Danish Parliament additionally revealed that its lawyers would be examining the legal validity of the Council vote, given the refusal of a Danish request to change the item's status on the agenda to one which would have permitted further discussion on the matter.

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