Microsoft has denied the allegation which appeared in Danish newspaper Boersen. The company said there are no plans to close the Microsoft Development Center at Vedbaek. However, the report was enough to annoy.
"Danish policy should not be dictated by corporations – no matter how big they might be. What's crucial is finding a solution that serves small as well as big IT companies best. And that is not necessarily the solution that Microsoft or other software mastodons feel to be the right one", said the Danish Social Democratic IT spokesman Thomas Adelskov.
The draft Directive, often known as the Software Patents Directive, has been on the verge of approval by the Council of Ministers since May, when European Trade Ministers rejected amendments made to the draft by the European Parliament. Some MEPs expressed fears that the wording of the Directive risks bringing to Europe the more liberal regime of software and business method patenting that exists in the US.
Progress on the draft Directive then stalled, as political manoeuvring kept the proposals off the Council agenda, where it was due to be included as an "A" item, being one that is voted through without discussion.
The Polish Government has been influential in delaying the vote, taking advantage of new voting weights that came into force on 1st November. Denmark also appears to have disrupted progress of the draft in the run up to its Parliamentary elections on 8th February and, together with Spain and the Netherlands, has pushed the proposals off the agenda for tomorrow's meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs council.
A protest planned by anti-patent activists for tomorrow will go ahead, despite the change in agenda.
"The Council and the Commission have demonstrated over and over again that they do not show the slightest respect for the European citizen," said Dieter Van Uytvanck, spokesperson for protest organisers the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure. "Over and over again, they continue to promote software patents with a complete neglect of the opposing voices from a large majority in the EU parliament. Enough is enough, and on 17th February, they will know it!"
Also taking place tomorrow is a vote on whether to ask the Commission to send the proposed Directive back to Parliament for a first reading – a request that, if granted, would start the Parliamentary debate afresh.
An influential Parliamentary Committee approved the motion in early February, and it is now being put forward to the Conference of Presidents (the leaders of all the Parliament's political groups). If approved, the motion then goes to the Parliamentary President Josep Borrell, who will decide whether to make a formal request to the Commission.