At a recent meeting we were trying to remember names of journalists who had covered the swpat issue, and Malcolm then did some research. One of the articles he came up included a quote from
Bernadette Cullinan, chairwoman of the ISA, ("an important method of promoting innovation in the sector was through protecting intellectual property rights").
This is most likely the same person who was on RTE Morning Ireland on the morning of the vote. I posted at the time to fsfe-ie:
The Morning Ireland show this morning had another piece on the swpat directive, and as when they've covered the issue previously, it was fairly one-sided. They had a representative of the Irish Software Association on, Bernadette (can't recall surname) I think, who was given the opportunity to repeat the usual propaganda. The interviewer did raise the view that small businesses would be harmed, but the ISA rep then just said she disagreed strongly and claimed to represent businesses of all sizes. The ISA rep also started off by claiming that the directive just harmonised patent application practices and appplication and enforcement procedures, which is a line I've seen more in the past week or two. The interview was pretty soft, and introduced ISA rep by saying that she was very strongly in one camp --- doesn't this mean that they really should have found someone from the other camp to talk to as well?
[http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/fsfe-ie/2005-July/002106.html dated 20050706]