Newspaper: Microsoft And Danish Government Argue Over Patents And JobsNewspaper: Microsoft And Danish Government Argue Over Patents And Jobs

A controversy involving Microsoft and the Danish government broke out in the European country's media Tuesday as the Boersen financial newspaper reported that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates had said his firm would move 800 jobs out of Denmark if the country opposed a recent patent directive.

According to the newspaper, the incident took place last November in a conversation between Gates and Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The issue focused on some 800 jobs at Navision, a Danish software firm that Microsoft acquired in 2002.

The software patents issue has been vigorously debated in Europe for several months with Microsoft and many other large firms favoring software patents while some EU countries as well as small and medium-sized software companies are opposed and suggest that software Intellectual Property can be guarded via copyright and trade secret protection measures.

A Microsoft lobbyist in Denmark reportedly indicated that Gates' position was that Microsoft might have to move some software operations to the U.S. where software patents are better protected, according to the Danish newspaper. Microsoft was not immediately available for comment.

Florian Mueller, head of a European-based organization that opposes patents for software, said the European-wide subject of software patents will be addressed Thursday when the EU Parliament's Conference of Presidents meets. The organization could move to restart an EU examination of the software patents issue.