Special Interests in Europe - PhillyBlog

eldondre · #1 (**permalink**) 07-05-2005, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Two other European legislators from Germany who have favored stronger software-patent protections also have industry ties. One works with another top patent-law firm, and another sits on the board of U.S. software giant Veritas Software Corp. and holds options to buy 85,416 shares of Veritas stock, according to U.S. securities filings.

All three illustrate how weak ethics and disclosure laws in Brussels, the seat of EU institutions, allow legislators to influence the outcome of debates without their connections receiving attention from the public or their colleagues. In this case, stronger patent protections that earlier had been rejected by Parliament were revived after a campaign led by Microsoft Corp., SAP AG, Siemens AG, Nokia Corp. and other companies with portfolios of software patents. In May, legislators with outside jobs in the financial industry helped push through late amendments to European banking regulations that were favored -- and in some cases written -- by the industry.

Mr. Lehne and his employer, the law firm Taylor Wessing, said he doesn't work directly on patents and that they are careful to avoid conflicts of interest. Mr. Lehne said he wasn't required to advise fellow members of Parliament about a potential conflict during committee debate on the software legislation, because EU law requires notification only if the member has a direct financial interest at stake.

"I would consider that inappropriate," said Ulrich Mueller, who heads a new public-interest group in Cologne, Germany, called LobbyControl. He decries a lack of "public scrutiny of these very close relationships between parliamentarians and special interests."

Proprietary-software companies' hopes for codifying a system of patent rights in Europe appeared to dim this year in the face of strong opposition from the "open source" movement, which aims to preserve public access to certain programming information to foster collaboration among programmers. But they were revived in a June 20 vote in Parliament's Legal Affairs committee after a heavy lobbying and public-relations campaign. If approved, the measure would allow companies to continue to win legal recognition of basic software processes and techniques, much as in the U.S.

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1...5Fone%5Feurope