Hi-tech jobs ‘at risk’ from EU patents

FAILURE by the EU to take a balanced approach to patenting could cost jobs in the Irish information technology sector, a leading expert has warned.

Director of Investment at Trinity Venture Capital Brian Caulfield said that this was too sensitive an area to be messed with at EU level.

Mr Caulfield and other IT representatives met the Foreign Affairs Dáil Committee in Dublin yesterday to spell out their concerns.

Central to the Irish IT sector's concerns is the threat to Irish patents as a result of the latest EU directive. If there was an EU- wide patent for all products that would solve the problem, but in the meantime the EU is tinkering around with the issue and exposing Irish firms, he said.

For Irish software firms to succeed they have to have clear and unambiguous patent protection for their investments, he said.

Patents are the main mechanisms used by hi-tech companies to prevent their inventions being copied or used without permission.

He says that the latest directive was in fact aimed at harmonising EU rules, but the European Parliament passed some amendments in September making it impossible to patent any software-related invention.

Mr Caulfield said that he feared this would cost jobs by reducing investment in the sector.

In essence the latest EU directive on the issue threatens to undermine a lot of the software success we have been enjoying.

And it was to highlight those concerns that Mr Caulfield and a number of Irish companies took their case to the Dáil Committee on European Affairs yesterday morning.

Commenting afterwards Mr Caulfield said Irish software can end up in all sorts of places.

For instance software can end up as part of the technology in a whole range of consumer goods from cars to household appliances.

The intervention by the parliament undermines the ability of Irish software firms to protect their intellectual property rights and that was the "main concern outlined by the sector to the Dáil Committee", he said.

Indigenous software firms employ 30,000 people including multinationals the figure is 90,000.

The sector's total contribution to GDP is 11.6% against a European average of 5%.

On the patent issue, Mr Caulfield said a recent poll showed that 75% of Irish firms use patents to protect their product.

Many of them are in the early stages of development and the use of patent protection is a vital factor in their long-term survival, he said.