Malcolm Harbour

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Malcolm Harbour (born February 19, 1947 in Woking, Surrey) is a British politician, and Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands region for the Conservative Party since 1999. He is a Member of the centre-right European People's Party - European Democrats (EPP-ED) group. He is well known for his controversial views on software patents.

He is lead spokesman and Co-ordinator for the (EPP-ED) on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee and Vice-Chairman of the Parliamentary Science Policy Panel (STOA).He is also a member of the Industry, Research and Energy Committee, and the Inter-Parliamentary Delegation to Japan.

In 2004 - 2006, he played a determining role in steering the controversial Services Directive through the Parliament.

He has also been active on the single market strategy, communications framework legislation, type-approval of motor vehicles, and the digital economy.

Malcolm Harbour is a leading player in Parliamentary Forums for the Automobile and Society, the Ceramics Industries, and the European Internet Foundation. He is also Chairman of the Conservative Technology Forum.

In May 2006, he was named the UK’s most Small Business Friendly MP by members of the Forum of Private Business. He was nominated for this award again in 2007.

Before his election to the Parliament, Malcolm Harbour spent 32 years in the motor industry, as an engineer, a senior commercial executive, a consultant and a researcher.

Malcolm Harbour was born in February 1947. He was educated at Bedford School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in Engineering, and at the University of Aston where he gained a Diploma in Management Studies.

He was first a candidate for Birmingham East in the 1989 European Parliament elections and is married with two children. His interests include travel, cooking, choral singing and motor racing.

On 13 January 2005, Harbour has been appointed by the European Commission to "Cars 21", a High Level Group convened to discuss the competitiveness in the European automobile industry.

Harbour was one of 2 MEPs on this panel. Other members included Government Ministers, European Commissioners and the Heads of Major EU Automotive Firms. The goal of the group is to define the best possible regulatory approaches; and Internal Market Spokesman.

[edit] Views on software patents

Malcolm is well known for his controversial pro-software patent views. He was one of the most outspoken supporters of the EU software patents directive until its ultimate rejection by the European Parliament in July 2005. He has been characterised as a software patent extremist, since he favours permitting Program Claims, a view not shared by most other supporters of software patents.

Within the European Parliament, he is associated with the Campaign for Creativity, a pro-software patent lobbyist group, in part because of unsolicited email sent from his address on behalf of that group.