Finland Patent Office for swpats

[<xdrudis@tinet.org>]

http://www.edri.org/cgi-bin/index?funktion=view&id=000100000055


EDRI-gram - Number 4, 12 March 2003 Druck mich
Date: 2003-03-12T21:20:23
EDRI-gram - Number 4, 12 March 2003

[...]

=================================================================
5. FINLAND CHANGES POLICY ON SOFTWARE PATENTS
=================================================================

Anticipating the new EU Directive on Patents, the National Board of
Patents and Registration of Finland (PRH) decided to accept patents on
software. Before, the Fins were a lot stricter than the European Patent
Office. The reason for the change in policy is mind-boggling. Because
the European Parliament seems to propose much more unpermissive rules
than the Council or Commission, the new Software Patent Directive will
be delayed and therefore Finland felt it had to suddenly soften its line.

On 21 February, the EP Industry Committee (ITRE) voted against almost
all proposals for software patentability. The leading Parliamentary
Committee however, is JURI, and it seems a lot more in favour of
extensive patents on software. JURI will discuss the proposed new Patent
Directive on 17 March and vote on 23 April. The vote in plenary is now
scheduled for the session of 12-15 May.

Commission proposal
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/pdf/2002/en_502PC0092.pdf

EP - JURI draft report by Arlene McCarthy
http://www.europarl.eu.int/meetdocs/committees/juri/20030219/488980en.pdf

EP - CULT opinion by Michel Rocard (20.01.2003)
http://www.europarl.eu.int/meetdocs/committees/juri/20030219/487019en.pdf

EP - ITRE opinion by Elly Plooy-van Gorsel (20.02.2003)
http://www.europarl.eu.int/meetdocs/committees/itre/20030319/481006en.pdf



Xavi Drudis Ferran
xdrudis@tinet.org