"BRUSSELS, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Poland will again seek to put off the adoption of controversial new rules on patenting computer inventions if European Union ministers decide to debate the issue next week, the Polish government said on Friday.
The planned law has sparked a heated debate on whether the EU should steer away from patenting computer programmes or follow the U.S. model of granting patents to Internet business methods such as online bookseller Amazon's famous "one-click shopping".
Poland, a large EU member whose backing is crucial for the adoption of the proposed rules, says it did not withdraw support of the planned law but said it wanted to ensure the rules would not open the door to the patenting of pure computer software.
EU President Luxembourg has hoped Poland would approve the planned legislation at an EU ministers meeting on Monday, but the Warsaw government said it was not yet ready. "If the Luxembourg president decides to include the draft of this directive in the agenda of the meeting, Poland will ask for its removal and postponement until Poland finishes all necessary analyses," the government's European Integration Committee said in a statement.
Poland raised eyebrows among many governments in December when EU ministers were expected simply to rubberstamp a compromise text agreed in May after tough discussions which saw several countries abstaining and one, Spain, voting against.
Diplomats say the delay may restart a debate on the issue and pave the way for more aggressive lobbying from the Open Source community of independent software developers, who oppose the rules and fear they may stifle innovation and favour large IT players.
The European Parliament, whose support is needed for the rules to become EU law, has already clashed with EU governments by proposing to restrict the scope of inventions that would be patentable.
Poland is concerned that the proposed legislation, in its current shape, could harm the operations of small software developers while favouring big ones, such as Microsoft, officials say."
I am curious. Let's wait and see.
[UPDATE_0] 2005-01-22 See also this information on the FFII website.
[UPDATE_1] 2005-01-22 There are also other reports like this one here:
"[...] The current deadlock over the European Union's fiercely contested plans to allow patents for software will be unblocked next week when Poland gives the green light to a controversial deal struck by ministers last May. [...]"
campaignforcreativity.org writes: