Committee to consider 256 changes to Patents Directive

A collection of legal experts will also be on hand to advise the committee on the technical interpretation of the more controversial aspects of the proposals.

Much of the concern relates to wording in the draft Directive that opponents think will bring a liberal regime of software and business method patenting to the EU, similar to that found in the US.

The draft was approved by the Council of Ministers in March, after a 10-month delay and intensive lobbying by groups on both sides of the debate.

The European Parliament, which last year extensively amended the draft, now has to consider it again in a "second reading". The process, which is due to end around 6th July with a Parliamentary vote on the Directive, has a much shorter timescale than that provided by the first reading.

The process began in April, when JURI considered a working document published by the Parliamentary rapporteur on the draft Directive, former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard.

Rocard has now completed a full report on the Directive and the proposed amendments to it – 256 in all. These are due to be discussed by the Committee on Monday. A JURI vote on the draft Directive is due on 20th June.

According to the Financial Times, which has seen a copy of the report, the proposed amendments again seek to restrict the scope of the Directive, forbidding the grant of patents for "the treatment, the manipulation, the representation and the presentation of information through software".

Patents would only be granted for software that controlled a physical process or a "controllable force of nature."