James Heald wrote:
I missed the full debate, but just read this in the official summary:
Brian CROWLEY (IE) for the UEN group paid a personal tribute to the efforts of Mr Rocard, but he said that the debate on this issue seems often to be totally unconnected to the real world. "Innovation is the key to our economies. Ideas need protection. A free-for-all would mean no protection, with US and Japanese companies able to patent European ideas. Patents are not a sword, they are a shield." He said 62 000 jobs in Ireland were based in small computer innovation businesses, and all these SMEs favoured the common position. http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+PRESS+DN-20050705...
_All_ these SMEs ???
He was apparently also on RTE's News at One this afternoon: http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0706/software.html
"News At One: Brian Crowley MEP explains that what he saw as protection for innovation and small businesses was defeated despite specialist advice".
In the end FG accounted for about half of the MEPs who voted against the rejection.