Spanish MEP questions the Commission on patent policy https://digital-majority.wikidot.com/forum/t-7078/spanish-mep-questions-the-commission-on-patent-policy Posts in the discussion thread "Spanish MEP questions the Commission on patent policy" - A spanish MEP from the Socialist group, has sent a written question on patent policy to the Commission. She remembers the failed software patent directive, but she also fails to remember the lessons of the failure: fear of litigation, not fear of not having patents. Tue, 06 Oct 2026 09:51:34 +0000 http://digital-majority.wikidot.com/forum/t-7078#post-16218 Spanish MEP questions the Commission on patent policy https://digital-majority.wikidot.com/forum/t-7078/spanish-mep-questions-the-commission-on-patent-policy#post-16218 Tue, 03 Apr 2007 15:26:36 +0000 zoobab 2946 Spanish socialist MEP Francisca Pleguezuelos Aguilar has posted a written question to the Commission where she mentions the defunt software patent directive, and the current words of the antitrust commission regarding illegal patents that Microsoft is using in the antitrust trial to kick out competitors out the market. Here is her question, which is copied from the European Parliament's webserver (the text is embodied in a proprietary Microsoft Word format, a shame for a public institution):

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1679/07
by Francisca Pleguezuelos Aguilar (PSE)
to the Commission

Subject: Encouraging technical innovation in the EU

The long and thorny debate which took place throughout 2004 and 2005
on the draft Directive on computer-implemented inventions, which was
not in the end adopted, highlighted the need to make far-reaching
changes to the EU's patents and industrial property arrangements; the
current coexistence of very different national arrangements leads to
major problems for innovative European SMEs, some of which do not have
the resources available to large companies to protect their
intellectual and industrial property. In the field of competition law,
the Commission deems as 'non-innovative' and 'of little value',
technologies which have been patented, which means that the Commission
is really starting to pass judgment on the innovative nature and value
of the patents legally granted by the European Patent Office, a
situation which creates enormous legal uncertainty.

Does the Commission intend to put forward in the near future any
changes to the current legislation on intellectual and industrial
property?

Does it think that significant changes need to be proposed in the way
the European Patent Office operates, or the criteria on which patents
are granted? Does the Commission think it is legitimate for it to be
passing judgment on the value and innovative character of patents
legally granted by the EPO, thus establishing a precedent which could
be applied to other fields?

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