Internal market and services commissioner Charlie McCreevy launched the public consultation in January, calling on businesses and individuals to enter into a debate on ways to improve the current patent system in Europe, and explore possible areas for harmonization across the EU.
The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure wrote to senior European Commission officials in March complaining that the process made it difficult for businesses and individuals to get involved, however.
In an open letter, FFII president Pieter Hintjens said: the documentation is available in too few languages and even when available, it is largely incomprehensible to the typical businessman.
Interested parties now have more time to view the documentation and voice their concerns, after the consultation period was extended to April 12. Views submitted before that date will be taken into account at a hearing, scheduled for June 13.
The original deadline was impossible to meet, said Hintjens in a statement welcoming the extension. We spoke to many firms that were still preparing their response at the stroke of midnight on 31 March. The Commission has not answered all our complaints, but this extension is welcome and helpful.
The FFII had called for the documentation to be made available in all 20 languages of the European Union. While Italian has been added to the list, it is still only available in six, including English, German, Spanish, French, and Dutch.
The FFII had also called on the commission to provide explanatory materials, clarify its view of problems with the patent system that the proposals are designed to fix, and make a clear statement as to whether the Community Patent or European Patent Litigation Agreement would enable software patents or not.
Commissioner McCreevy is keen to push forward the long-delayed Community Patent initiative, which is designed to reduce the number of languages required for an application and decrease applications costs, thereby increasing the competitiveness of the European patent system against the US.
The European Patent Litigation Agreement, meanwhile, would see the creation of a European Patent Court, which would have jurisdiction over the validity and infringement of European patents. Anti-software patent campaigners have warned in that the Community Patent could allow software patents by the back door if current European Patent Office case law is applied.
