The dice is cast. The EU Competitiveness Council today has reached a compromise on the criteria for the patentability of computer-implemented inventions and has also once more failed to agree on the EU Community Patent. From Document 9081/04 (Presse 140):
"[...]The Council reached political agreement by qualified majority with the Austrian, Italian and Belgian delegations abstaining and Spain voting against, on a common position concerning the proposal for a Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions. Once this text has been formally adopted by the Council, it will be submitted to the European Parliament for second reading. The agreed text concerns:
- provisions, in accordance with the practice developed within the European Patent Organisation, with regard to exclusions from patentability:
1. a computer program as such can not constitute a patentable invention.
2. a computer-implemented invention shall not be regarded as making a technical contribution merely because it involves the use of a computer, network or other programmable apparatus. Accordingly, inventions involving computer programs, whether expressed as source code, object code or any other form, which implement business, mathematical or other methods and do not produce any technical effects beyond the normal physical interactions between a program and the computer, network or other programmable apparatus in which it is run shall not be patentable.
- a definition of technical contribution :
1. 'technical contribution' means a contribution to the state of the art in a field of technology which is new and not obvious to a person skilled in the art. The technical contribution shall be assessed by consideration of the difference between the state of the art and the scope of the patent claim considered as a whole, which must comprise technical features, irrespective of whether or not these are accompanied by nontechnical features.
[...]
The Council noted that the necessary unanimity could not be found in support of the Presidency's compromise proposal for a Council Regulation on the Community patent. In these circumstances, the Presidency stated its intention of referring this matter to the President of the European Council. [...]"
From BBC on-line in view of the failure of the talks on the EU Community Patent:
"EU patent plan hits the buffers
Plans for a European Union-wide patent - a key part of the EU's strategy for making businesses more competitive - have been shelved indefinitely.
The proposal was put on the back burner on Tuesday after officials from the 25 EU countries failed to patch up their differences over the issue.
Unless fresh proposals are drafted, the plan is now likely to be abandoned.
The patent would have allowed firms to protect their inventions across the whole EU with a single application.
Language barrier
The European Commission, which proposed the measure, claimed it would halve the average cost of protecting intellectual property throughout Europe.
The patent proposal was a central plank of a strategy, set out four years ago at a summit of European leaders in Lisbon, to transform the EU into the world's most competitive economy by 2010.
The EU's failure to get the patent off the ground marks a setback to the so-called Lisbon Agenda, already tarnished by Europe's recent sluggish growth record.
The proposal came unstuck after EU officials were unable to reach final agreement on how many languages patent applications should be translated into.
The European Commission said it had not yet decided whether to re-draft the proposal in an effort to get around the remaining obstacles."
So, I'm not really unhappy about this because of the pending proposal was insufficient. In particular, some mediterranien EU Member Sates were not prepared to abandon the requirement of providing a translation of the full set of claims into their respective national languages.
Hence, it is a bit unclear to me whether or not the heads of Governments of the EU Member States will deal with the EU Community Matter on their next summit.
Anyway, it is a real achievement that the anti-patent activists from FFII e.V. did not win this time. However, the second reading in the European Parliament is to be scheduled after the European general elections probably in autumn or winter later this year, and it is to be expected that the then new-elected MEPs will face the heaviest lobbying from the FFII they have ever seen.
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Dipl.-Phys. Axel H Horns is Patentanwalt (German Patent Attorney),
European Patent Attorney as well as European Trade Mark Attorney. In particular, he is Member of:
The dice is cast. The EU Competitiveness Council today has reached a compromise on the criteria for the patentability of computer-implemented inventions and has also once more failed to agree on the EU Community Patent. From Document 
9081/04 (Presse 140): 
