Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats
European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy was today, 20 September, attacked for supporting new patent rules that will heap extra costs and risks on small businesses.
Firms embroiled in patent litigation could face bills of €97,000 to €415,000 for medium-scale action, under the McCreevy scheme, said senior Socialist Euro MPs.
The Socialist MEPs will next week table a motion in Strasbourg to scrap the McCreevy plan for a new Munich-based court system to oversee patent law. The system would be outside the reach of both the European Parliament and the Court of Justice.
The Socialist move comes one year after the European Parliament rejected proposals from the Commission and Council for a software patent bill.
The Socialist motion, tabled by former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard and Austrian social democrat leader in the European Parliament, who is group spokeswoman on legal affairs, Maria Berger, calls for "balance between the interests of patent holders and the broader public interest in innovation and competitive markets."
The motion criticises Mr McCreevy’s support for a European Patent Litigation
Agreement (EPLA), founded outside the scope of the EU institutions, as weakening EU democracy. The MEPs claim creation of the EPLA would undermine judicial independence, increase litigation costs and expose small- and medium-sized businesses to greater risks.
Said Ms Berger: “Patent applications filed at the European Patent Office have increased by 60 per cent every year over the last seven years. This does not reflect an increase in innovation. Instead it raises concern over the creation of a thicket of patents and the use of patents as a substitute for real innovation.”
Mr Rocard said: “It is unacceptable to create a non-EU legal system complete with a non-EU court to deal with patent legislation. Only an EU framework can produce the conditions that we need for effective, democratic control over Europe’s patent law at international level.”
The full text of the Socialist motion is available here below
Contact Tony Robinson +32-475-257410
Click here for the Socialist motion
Outrage as McCreevy exposes firms to risk of €415,000 legal bills. European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy was today, 20 September, attacked for supporting new patent rules that will heap extra costs and risks on small businesses.
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