The European Commission says that it will not submit any more versions of the original proposal following the vote. Some tech firms that supported the bill (including Nokia) believe it was vital to protect their research and development, but opponents to the bill warned of the possible negative outcome. Opponents believed that the software patenting that would have resulted would jeopardise the prospects of small firms and open source developers.
"Patents will continue to be handled by national patent offices ... as before, which means different interpretations as to what is patentable, without any judiciary control by the European Court of Justice," said EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, representing the EU head office at the vote. Intellect, the UK's trade association for hi-tech firms was pleased with the decision.
"The current system has served the interests of the UK hi-tech industry well, giving companies both large and small the incentive to invest in research and the ability to protect the fruits of their work from exploitation by others," said director general of Intellect, John Higgins.
Source:
BBC News
Written by: James Delahunty @ 6 Jul 2005 15:37
