Software patents loom in NZ

Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 23 June 2009 05:25

Business IT - Technology

New Zealand is moving towards allowing unlimited software patents in the country. The first reading of the bill, which is now at the select committee stage, resulted in 107 votes for and only 14 against.
A comments process has been allowed by parliament's commerce committee until July 2.

There is some doubt as to whether patents are already a fait accompli; while the bill describes a three-stage review of the Patents Act of 1953, of which the current process is stage two, the authorities appear to believe that the review is already over.

But what riles those who are opposed to the bill is the fact that the dangers and drawbacks of software patents have not been thoroughly discussed in parliament.

It is somewhat ironic that New Zealand, a country where companies were subject to demands some years ago by a company holding an e-commerce patent, should be making moves down this path.

The patent holder, D.E. Technologies, refused to say at the time why it had targeted companies in the shaky isles.

In 2003, when SCO filed its now infamous suit against IBM for alleged contract breach and made claims that code, which it said it owned, had been illegally used in the Linux kernel, New Zealand companies were again said to be targeted, this time.

New Zealanders are, understandably, upset about the development. Colin Jackson, a former president of InternetNZ, said there was absolutely nothingto be gained by introducing software patents.

"Patents are intended to incentivise innovation  by allowing an inventor a monopoly. There is no shortage of  innovation, however, in countries and communities that do not use  software patents. The whole of Linux would be a good example," he told iTWire.