View source for European Information, Communications and Consumer Electronics Technology Industry Associations

The '''European Information, Communications and Consumer Electronics Technology Industry Associations''' (commonly known by its abbreviation, '''EICTA''') is a Brussels-based [[Europe]]an trade association of electronics and telecommunications companies.

== History ==

The '''European Information & Communications Technology Industry Association''' was founded in November 1999. EICTA finds its origins in two former European federations of industries associations: [[ECTEL]] and [[eurobit]].

In October 2001, the European Information & Communications Technology Industry Association merged with the [[EACEM]], the European Association of Consumer Electronics Manufacturers, but kept its original acronymic name: [[EICTA]].

== Positions ==

EICTA took a leading role in supporting the unamended version of the proposed EU Directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions (the "[[Software Patents Directive]]"), however, it stated that it was not advocating that patents should be granted for software. Mark MacGann, Director General of EICTA, said 
:"This industry (the ICT industry) is united in its rejection of patenting of software. Those who depict the draft directive on the patentability of computer implemented inventions as some sort of "[[software patent]] law" are at best misinformed and at worst dishonest, malicious and disrespectful of the European democratic process." [http://www.patents4innovation.org/index.php/eng/news_article/european_technology_industry_launches_new_campaign_for_a_rational_european/]

When EICTA uses the expression "patents for software", it might be understood that it refers to the relatively narrow concept of "inventions of no technical nature", as expressed slightly differently in one of their statements:
:"Patents for software have never existed and should never exist in Europe because software is already protected by [[copyright law]]. Patents will only be granted for inventions of a technical nature. These include inventions in medical equipment, cars, mobile phones, aircraft, televisions, voice- and image-recognition devices, digital rights management solutions, and countless other examples." [http://www.patents4innovation.org/index.php/eng/news_article/european_technology_industry_launches_new_campaign_for_a_rational_european/]

The term "technical" is not defined in the Commission and Council versions of above-mentioned directive, however. Since the European Patent Office considers e.g. "processing image data" and "reducing memory usage" as "technical" [http://www.iusmentis.com/patents/businessmethods/epc/#TheexclusionofArticle522and3EPC], several third parties --including a recent report written for the European Parliament [http://www.ffii.org/~jmaebe/epecosci0502/SoftwarePatent.pdf] and a paper [http://www.epip.ruc.dk/Papers/ROSSI_Paper.pdf] presented at the [http://www.epip.ruc.dk European Policy on Intellectual Property 2005] conference-- have voiced the concern that the effects of the positions that EICTA supports may be much broader than it admits.

== Notable members ==
''Not including all national trade associations.''

* [[Accenture]]
* [[Agilent Technologies]]
* [[Alcatel]]
* [[Apple computer|Apple]]
* [[Blaupunkt|Blaupunkt Werke]]
* [[Canon Inc.|Canon]] Europa
* [[Cisco Systems, Inc.|Cisco Systems]]
* [[Dell, Inc.|Dell Computer]]
* [[EADS]]
* [[Epson Seiko Corporation|Epson Europe]]
* [[Ericsson]]
* [[Fujitsu]]
* [[Grundig]]
* [[Hewlett-Packard]]
* [[Hitachi, Ltd.|Hitachi Europe Ltd]]
* [[IBM]]
* [[Infineon Technologies]]
* [[Intel]]
* [[Kenwood Electronics]] Europe
* [[Konica Minolta]]
* [[Lexmark]] International
* [[Lucent Technologies]]
* [[Marconi Corporation plc]]
* [[Matsushita]] Electric Europe
* [[Microsoft]]
* [[Motorola]]
* [[NEC Corporation|NEC]] Europe
* [[Nokia]]
* [[Nortel Networks]]
* [[Philips|Philips Consumer Electronics]]
* [[Pioneer (company)|Pioneer]] Europe
* [[Samsung]] Europe
* [[Sanyo]]
* [[SAP AG|SAP]]
* [[Sharp Corporation|Sharp Electronics]]
* [[Siemens AG|Siemens]]
* [[Sony]]
* [[Sun Microsystems]]
* [[Texas Instruments]]
* [[Thales Group|Thales]]
* [[Thomson SA|Thomson]]
* [[Toshiba]] Information Systems

== See also ==
* [[Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe]] (UNICE)
* [[The German electrical and electronics industry]] (ZVEI - ''Zentralverband Elektrotechnik- und Elektronikindustrie e.V.'') [http://www.zvei.de/]

== External links ==
* [http://www.eicta.org/ Official web site]
* [http://www.patents4innovation.org/ http://www.patents4innovation.org/], an EICTA project, launched in November 2004

==Notes==
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[[Category:Corporate Lobby Groups]]
[[Category:EU Corporate Lobby Groups]][[Category:Europe]]