Electronics Weekly
In an open letter, the chief executives of Alcatel, Ericsson, Nokia, Philips and Siemens outlined their support for “a balanced legal framework”.
“Europe has a long tradition of innovation. European inventors need to be able to protect their innovation in order to maintain worldwide leadership in high technology sectors such as telecommunications,” said Serge Tchuruk, chairman and CEO of Alcatel.
The European Parliament’s proposed Directive that would allow patents on “Computer Implemented Inventions” should go ahead, they said, but without proposed amendments that would impact European industry.
“It is a myth to think that this Directive favours large companies over small,” said Rudy Provoost, president of EICTA and CEO at Philips Consumer Electronics. “EICTA represents 10,000 small, medium and large companies in Europe, with over two million employees. These companies, working together, form an ecosystem of innovation that is indispensable to the EU’s main objective of creating jobs and growth.”
The five CEOs warned that amendments to the Directive “risk negatively impacting on Europe’s digital technology industry, employment in Europe and investment in R&D”.
Carl-Henric Svanberg, president and CEO of Ericsson, said: “If we are not able to patent our computer implemented inventions, the digital technology industry, and also Europe as a region, will have difficulty staying competitive.”
His comments were echoed by Gerard Kleisterlee, president and CEO of Philips: “We need to continue to innovate or we will lose customers and market share. This is only possible if we can reward innovation and secure our investment in R&D.”
Jorma Ollila, Chairman and CEO of Nokia, said: “We need to be able to protect the huge investments that we make in Europe, in order to be globally in a strong position vis-à-vis our major competitors.”
