Companies asked to fight European software patents and unitary patents
Companies within the European Union are being asked publicly to declare their opposition to software patents by signing a resolution (below) asking to the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs to amend the regulation on the unitary patent.
This resolution, along with the list of signatories, will be sent to Members of the European Parliament on Tuesday, 13th September – a few days before the meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs. More than 400 firms have already signed it.
To sign the resolution, please send an email to: resolution-enterprises (at) unitary-patent.eu
The text of the resolution is as follows:
Our company is worried about the current plans to set up a unitary patent with a flanking unified patent court.
The European Patent Office (EPO)’s practices to grant software patents, under the deceiving term of “computer-implemented inventions”, pose a threat to our professional activities.
We are concerned that the regulation on the unitary patent, as agreed in December 2011 by the negotiators of the Council, the Commission, and the Committee on Legal Affairs of the European Parliament, leaves any and every issue on the limits of patentability to the EPO’s case law, without any democratic control or review by an independent court.
The regulation on the unitary patent is an opportunity for the EU legislators to harmonise substantive patent law in the EU institutional and jurisdictional framework, and to put an end to the EPO’s self-motivated practices extending the realm of patentability to software. Failing to do so, this unitary patent will do more harm than good to the EU ICT firms.
For these reasons, we urge MEPs to adopt amendments which clearly state that the EPO’s decisions are subject to a review from the Court of Justice of the European Union, and which reaffirm the rejection of software patentability, as expressed by the votes of the European Parliament on September 24th, 2003 and July 6th, 2005.
Signatories are also being encouraged to contact members of the Committee on Legal Affairs by email.
As company secretary of Bristol Wireless, I’m pleased to say BW’s already signed the resolution.