A controversial EU bill to patent software-related innovations appeared close to collapse on Tuesday and the European Commission warned it would not submit fresh legislation if the bill failed. Lawmakers have come under intense lobbying from large technology companies who said changes sought by the European Parliament would expose products to copy cat versions from China.
They are opposed by groups seeking to limit the scope of patents which they say stifle innovation and hurt small firms.
Campaigners handed out leaflets on the train used by lawmakers from Brussels to Strasbourg on Monday after bombarding parliamentarians with emails in recent weeks.
The bill's sponsor in the parliament, French socialist Michel Rocard, rejected criticism from the technology industry, led by groups such as Microsoft, Nokia and Siemens.
"I call upon our multinational corporations to make the effort and adjust. It won't be as tough as they seem to think it will be," the former French prime minister told the legislature on Tuesday.
Members will be seeking to change a text agreed by member states which favours a wider scope for patenting innovations than Rocard and some other lawmakers want.
The bill aims to harmonise how patents on innovations are applied across the EU to help streamline the current process.
Britain's Andrew Duff of the liberals, which largely back member states, said talks between member states and parliament offered the best chance of a first class bill.
"To fail to legislate at all would leave the industry to the mercy of the European Patent Office, the courts and panels of the World Trade Organisation. That could be a costly, legalistic and confusing situation," Duff said.
Several members said they doubted a joint deal with member states could be brokered and preferred fresh legislation from the Commission.
However, the Brussels executive rejected drafting a new proposal and Economic Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia warned that allowing the bill to fail would hurt the EU aim of increasing the 25-nation bloc's economic competitiveness.
Rocard told Reuters that it was unlikely a majority will be found to change the common position of the member states.
"The choice is accepting the common position or rejecting it. We shall see," he added.
All political groups reject patenting pure software, but there is no agreement over how to tread the fine line between patenting innovations and excluding pure software.
Liberal and centre-right parties largely favour a text in line with a common position adopted by member states, and want a relatively wide definition of what can be patented.
Liberal Sharon Bowles, a former patent lawyer, said Rocard's "simplistic exclusion" of data processing left out digital technology from patenting.
"You wipe out patentability in huge areas of technology," Bowles said.
The Greens and most socialists want a narrow scope for patenting, arguing that patents lock smaller firms out of markets and are expensive to uphold in courts.
The open-source movement, whose supporters held a colourful protest outside the legislature, want software code to be free, and many small firms also seeks a narrow definition.
Almunia said the position of member states excluded patents for software and business methods, despite the claims to the contrary.
"The Commission believes that the common position meets the requirements of introducing predictable framework that promotes and rewards innovation," Almunia told lawmakers.
Rocard has proposed defining a patentable innovation as one involving "controllable forces of nature", so that patents are for physical gadgets such as an insulin pump or ABS brakes on a car, with software as an aid.
But the liberals and the centre right want the term ditched, saying it is vague.
"The expression 'controllable forces of nature' is a legal nightmare for many member states," Bowles said.