[Fsfe-uk] Consolidated text of EU parliament amendments

[James Heald]

Attached is a consolidated text of the Parliament version of the 
Directive, passed today.

As you can see, it is outstanding -- they voted to put in everything, 
and the kitchen sink.

That is just as well, because under the EU Parliament rules, when it 
second reading they can only defend their existing text against the 
Commission version, they can't introduce wholly new amendments.

Some of what the parliament is pushing for will have to be watered down 
(IMHO).

But this decision today gives us incredible clout to negotiate for a 
fair and balanced law for software patents.
Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions


Article 1: Purpose

1. This Directive lays down rules for the patentability of computer-implemented 
inventions.


Article 2: Definitions

2a. "computer-implemented invention" means any invention in the sense of the 
European Patent Convention the performance of which involves the use of a 
computer, computer network or other programmable apparatus and having in its 
implementations one or more non-technical features which are realised wholly or 
partly by a computer program or computer programs, besides the technical 
features that any invention must contribute;

2b. "technical contribution", also called "invention", means a contribution to 
the state of the art in technical field which is not obvious to a person 
skilled in the art. The technical character of the contribution is one of the 
four requirements for patentability. Additionally, to deserve a patent, the 
technical contribution has to be new, non-obvious, and susceptible of 
industrial application.

2c. "technical field" means an industrial application domain requiring the use 
of controllable forces of nature to achieve predictable results. "Technical" 
means "belonging to a technical field". The use of natural forces to control 
physical effects beyond the digital representation of information belongs to a 
technical field. The processing, handling, and presentation of information do 
not belong to a technical field, even where technical devices are employed for 
such purposes.

2d. "industry" in the sense of patent law means "automated production of 
material goods"; 

    
Article 3a: Fields of Technology

3a. Member states shall ensure that data processing is not considered to be a 
field of technology in the sense of patent law, and that innovations in the 
field of data processing are not considered to be inventions in the sense of 
patent law. 
    
    

Article 4: Rules of Patentability
    
4.1. In order to be patentable, a computer-implemented invention must be 
susceptible of industrial application and new and involve an inventive step.
    
4.2. In order to involve an inventive step, a computer-implemented invention 
must make a technical contribution.
    
4.3. The significant extent of the technical contribution shall be assessed by 
consideration of the difference between the technical elements included in the 
scope of the patent claim considered as a whole and the state of the art.
    
4.3a. In determining whether a given computer-implemented invention makes a 
technical contribution, the following test shall be used: whether it 
constitutes a new teaching on cause-effect relations in the use of controllable 
forces of natures and has an industrial application in the strict sense of the 
expression, in terms of both method and result. 
    
    

Article 4a: Exclusions from patentability
    
4a.1. A computer-implemented invention shall not be regarded as making a 
technical contribution merely because it involves the use of a computer, 
network or other programmable apparatus. Accordingly, inventions involving 
computer programs which implement business, mathematical or other methods and 
do not produce any technical effects beyond the normal physical interactions 
between a program and the computer, network or other programmable apparatus in 
which it is run shall not be patentable.
    
4a.2. Member States shall ensure that computer-implemented solutions to 
technical problems are not considered to be patentable inventions merely 
because they improve efficiency in the use of resources within the data 
processing system. 
    



Article 5: Form of Claims; and furher provisions
    
5. Member States shall ensure that a computer-implemented invention may be 
claimed only as a product, that is as a programmed device, or as a technical 
production process. A patent claim to a computer program, either on its own or 
on a carrier, shall not be allowed.
    
5a. Member States shall ensure that the production, handling, processing, 
distribution and publication of information, in whatever form, can never 
constitute direct or indirect infringement of a patent, even when a technical 
apparatus is used for that purpose.
    
5b. Member States shall ensure that patent claims granted in respect of 
computer-implemented inventions include only the technical contribution which 
justifies the patent claim. 
    
    
5c. Member States shall ensure that the use of a computer program for purposes 
that do not belong to the scope of the patent cannot constitute a direct or 
indirect patent infringement.
        
5d.  Member States shall ensure that whenever a patent claim names features 
that imply the use of a computer program, a well-functioning and well 
documented reference implementation of such a program is published as part of 
the patent description without any restricting licensing terms. 
    
    


Article 6: Interoperability

6. The rights conferred by patents granted for inventions within the scope of 
this Directive shall not affect acts permitted under Articles 5 and 6 of 
Directive 91/250/EEC on the legal protection of computer programs by copyright, 
in particular under the provisions thereof in respect of decompilation and 
interoperability.

6a. Member States shall ensure that, wherever the use of a patented technique 
is needed for a significant purpose such as ensuring conversion of the 
conventions used in two different computer systems or networks so as to allow 
communication and exchange of data content between them, such use is not 
considered to be a patent infringement.