New Zealand To Dump Software Patents Afterall (But Will Allow 'Embedded Software' Patents)

from the back-and-forth dept

Back in March, we discussed a report claiming that New Zealand politicians wanted to completely outlaw software patents. However, in June, it was reported that a lobbying group claiming to represent tech industry companies, NZICT, had convinced politicians to back down somewhat, and go back to allowing certain types of software patents. In our comments, there was a bit of an interesting discussion, with one knowledgeable New Zealander noting that NZICT mostly represents foreign tech companies, and that none of the top 15 New Zealand software firms are members.

It looks like those reports of NZ politicians backing down may have been a bit premature. Chirag Mehta points us to the news that, despite the lobbying effort, it's been announced that the patent bill will not be changed, thus basic software will remain unpatentable. However, the details suggest that embeddable software can be patented, and there are some concerns that the "guidelines" (yet to be developed) for such embeddable software will be used by some to sneak in standard software patents.

Still, it's good to see New Zealand realizing that basic software patents can be harmful. It sounds like a big help was the fact that the two biggest New Zealand software companies both came out against software patents certainly helped. Orion Health noted that patents generally are "counter-productive" and "are often used obstructively." The company also noted that the " best protection is to innovate and innovate fast." Exactly. Meanwhile, Jade said: "We believe the patent process is onerous, not suited to the software industry, and challenges our investment in innovation."

And really, the fact that the domestic software industry doesn't want software patents, while foreign competitors did, is not a surprise. If you look back at the history of patents, it's the same story over and over again. When Switzerland was finally pressured into adding patent protection for dyes, it was due to strong pressure from foreign dyemakers. When Italy was finally pressured into adding patents on pharmaceuticals, again it was due to strong pressure from foreign pharmaceutical firms. In both cases, after patents were put in place, they weren't used to make those industries more innovative, but for large multinational conglomerates to come in and lock up the market. It's nice to see that New Zealand may avoid this fate on software.
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Filed Under: new zealand, patents, software patents


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  • icon
    Tor (profile), 15 Jul 2010 @ 5:24am

    That's good news. I hope they will be able to uphold this rule too. In Europe we have the European Patent Convention that excludes "schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and programs for computers" and "scientific theories and mathematical methods" from patentability. However, through twisted interpratations of that it seems to be possible in some countries to get pure software patents granted anyway.

    Anyway, since New Zealand have signed the TRIPS agreement it's good to have examples to point to of countries that interprete it such that excluding software patents is possible. That's very welcome.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Jul 2010 @ 6:15am

    "Orion Health noted that patents generally are "counter-productive" and "are often used obstructively."" - if i was a second to an idea, i would have the same opinion.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Solomon Linda, 15 Jul 2010 @ 6:21am

      Re:

      Nice to see that you admit having the same opinion as others.

      Because we all know you couldn't possible be first at anything.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 15 Jul 2010 @ 8:12am

      Re:

      I'm curious, do you work in software or do you just talk about things that you don't know about.

      I read this article last night and I had and realized how telling it would be to see the ratio of software patent supports are software developers vs lawyers.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Solomon Linda, 15 Jul 2010 @ 6:26am

    The Lion Sleeps Tonight

    Patents for software are just dumb.

    Securing anything cost thousands of dollars if not millions, raise insurmountable barriers and give rise to exploitative tactics that diminish any culture inside society.

    People loose sight of what it is important. i.e. Work done.
    They start thinking they can live of some dream pipe idea for eternity that is not how reality works, when work stops so do innovation and infra-structure growth.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    angry dude, 15 Jul 2010 @ 6:38am

    masnik is full of it

    The difference between "basic" "software patent" and embedded "software patent" is about the same as the difference between a regular techdirt moron and a corporate ass-licking tech-ignorant shitty techdirt master blogger like Mike Masnick

    - purely quantitative

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 15 Jul 2010 @ 7:48am

      Re: masnik is full of it

      yeesh. relax man. you're going to give yourself a heart attack.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 15 Jul 2010 @ 8:18am

      Re: masnik is full of it

      How's that imaginary patent working for you, AD?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      senshikaze (profile), 15 Jul 2010 @ 8:26am

      Re: masnik is full of it

      That was well beyond not civil.

      For love of all things Internet, please back the f-ck off.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Jul 2010 @ 12:33pm

    Leading Software Programmer Agrees

    Justin Frankel, the software designer behind Winamp, recently said in an interview with Bigthink.com that software patenting was a major problem for developers. Very interesting interview, especially given what's is now happening in New Zealand.
    This is the link to the video.
    http://bigthink.com/ideas/20905

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Chris Jagalla, 15 Jul 2010 @ 1:56pm

    Proof in the Pudding

    So does everyone think that New Zealand will see a boom in software developers relocating to Auckland to work in this more "free" environment?

    As such a relatively small country in population, economy, and intellectual property...I'm curious to see what kind of trial balloon results this actually gives us.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Gene Cavanaugh (profile), 16 Jul 2010 @ 2:57pm

    Software patents

    Right on, again! I am an IP attorney, and I am developing very strong evidence of the value of some IP (actually, the type the founding fathers had in mind). However, there is no reasonable purpose to software (or business method, for that matter) patents.

    In fact, most IP is so badly abused today that we really need a major revamp, starting with eliminating software and business method patents.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Greg, 13 Aug 2010 @ 5:45am

      Re: Software patents

      I don't think I've ever heard a lawyer against software patents here in the States. Most programmers I know are against these patents, but ALL of the lawyers I know think they are God's gift to innovation.

      I think the first step to embracing this law change is to setup a new sourceforge spin-off in NZ. Whether the NZ economy benefits from this law will play out over a few years. Will other countries change their laws? Will the quantity of software patent litigation in the U.S. continue to increase at such a rapid rate? If other countries don't change their laws and patent litigation continues it's exponential growth you can be sure hundreds of small software firms will be at least domiciled in NZ.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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