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Tuesday, April 05, 2005

2nd Reading for European Patent Directive?

"The European Parliament has dropped its objections to the way the "common position" of the EU Council on the planned Directive on the Patentability of "Computer-implemented Inventions" was adopted. The Legal Committee of the European Parliament had initially insisted on examining the protocols of the decisive meeting of the Council of Ministers at the beginning of March. A number of parliamentarians along with a number of software patent critics had entertained the suspicion that the Luxembourgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, a.k.a the Council of Ministers, had neglected the objections raised by representatives from a number of member states to the highly controversial position, thereby committing a breach of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament. According to a parliamentary spokesman the Legal Committee had now decided, however, no longer to take into account the "small irrelevant errors" committed.

"We are now embarking on the 2nd reading," [said] Eva Lichtenberger, a prominent opponent in the Legal Committee."

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From heise online

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