Klaus-Heiner Lehne
Klaus-Heiner Lehne (born 28 October 1957, Düsseldorf) is a German lawyer, an MEP, and a member of the Europen Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee.
He studied law, physics and philosphy, and was a member of the Budestag (1992-1994). Since 1994, he is a member of the European Parliament as EPP Group coordinator on the Legal Affairs Committee. He's a member of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats - (CDU) Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands) and European Democrats, a member of Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, a substitute member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, and a substitute member of the Delegation for relations with Japan.[1]
Contents
Background
Over the last few years, he has been one of the most influential MEPs pushing for software patents in the Parliament. At the same time he is a Partner at the law firm Taylor Wessing. It advises clients “on patenting strategy in the software sector.”[2] The world’s largest business software company, SAP, is listed as a client of Taylor Wessing working on patents and intellectual property.[3][4]
At the time of Lehne’s appointment to Taylor Wessing in 2003, Legal Week reported how the firmsaw “the development of its seven-partner Brussels regulatory and competition practice in Brussels as vital for its key corporate clients.”[5] According to Taylor Wessing’s website in 2006, its “patent group is one of the strongest, largest and best known in Europe. The group comprises around 30 patent law specialists” who advise “clients in a wide variety of industry sectors, including… software”. It goes on to say that Taylor Wessing has successfully represented multinational companies… in patent litigation of great commercial significance.”[6]
Register of Interests
Partner, Taylor Wessing, Düsseldorf - Law Firm
Conflicts of Interest
It could be construed that Lehne has a potential conflict of interest: as a lawyer whose clients have included the world’s largest software company and as an MEP who has been involved in patent legislation that could help that company. Lehne and Taylor Wessing are keen to stress that he doesn’t work on patents[7] and Lehne sees no such conflict: “All MEPs have a professional background”, he argues. “Being a lawyer and being an MEP in the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliament is normal. Sometimes knowledge and competence helps to make the right political decisions.”[8]
Since the failure of the 2005 software patent directive, the European Commission and patent industry have been pushing the new European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA), which critics say would lead to weaker democratic control over the patent system. One non-profit group on patents, the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) described EPLA as creating “an uncontrollable, excessive situation, for higher costs, without discernable advantage.”[9]
According to FFII “the spearheads of the patent establishment in the European Parliament, MEPs Klaus-Heiner Lehne and Sharon Bowles, both legal professionals involved in the patent litigation business, have tried hard to push their [political] groups into supporting a motion which gives uncritical backing to the EPLA.”[10]
In September 2006, the Commission’s plans were severely criticised in the European Parliament by the Socialist group of MEPs “for supporting new patent rules that will heap extra costs and risks on small businesses”.[11] Lehne argued the opposite and attacked the “die-hard, anti-innovation MEPs”, so called "no-software-patent" people”.[12]
Resources
- European Parliament Website - MEP Directory: Klaus-Heiner Lehne, accessed 07 November 2008.
- FFII Website, EPLA 2006, accessed 07 November 2008.
- FFII website, FFII Analysis of European Patent Litigation Agreement, accessed 07 November 2008.
- Rowell, Andy, Too Close for Comfort?, Spinwatch, July 2008.
- Socialist Group in the European Parliament, Outrage as McCreevy exposes firms to risk of €415,000 legal bills. European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy was today, 20 September, attacked for supporting new patent rules that will heap extra costs and risks on small businesses, September 20, 2006, accessed 07 November 2008.
- Taylor Wessing website, 2006, accessed 07 November 2008.
- Virtual Law website, accessed 07 November 2008.
Notes and References
- ↑ European Parliament Website - MEP Directory: Klaus-Heiner Lehne, accessed 07 November 2008.
- ↑ Taylor Wessing, Patents, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
- ↑ Virtual Law website, accessed 07 November 2008.
- ↑ In 2005, a spokesman for SAP denied working with Taylor Wessing. However information supplied by SAP to the website “Virtual law”, lists SAP as a client of Taylor Wessing.
- ↑ Richard Tromans, “Simmons & Simmons Has Boosted Its Frankfurt Office With A Key Finance Partner Hire From Ernst & Young's German Law Arm,” Legal Week, 2 October 2003, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
- ↑ Taylor Wessing website, 2006, accessed 07 November 2008.
- ↑ Mary Jacoby and Glenn R. Simpson Wall Street Journal Politics, business mix freely in Europe Parliament, 5 July 2005, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
- ↑ Klaus-Heiner Lehne, E-mail to Andy Rowell, 17 June 2008, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
- ↑ FFII website, FFII Analysis of European Patent Litigation Agreement, accessed 07 November 2008.
- ↑ FFII Website, EPLA 2006, accessed 07 November 2008.
- ↑ The Socialist Group in the European Parliament, Outrage as McCreevy exposes firms to risk of €415,000 legal bills. European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy was today, 20 September, attacked for supporting new patent rules that will heap extra costs and risks on small businesses, September 20, 2006, accessed 07 November 2008.
- ↑ EPP-ED Group, EPLA new chance for a European patent regime. Klaus-Heiner Lehne MEP, September 20, 2006, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
