Software patents loom in NZ

Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 23 June 2009 04:25

Business IT - Technology

Harrison said large users such as Governments knew the game, and had  been clamouring for Microsoft to support open standards. "This story is really a whole book in itself. The character assassination and ballot stuffing will make a good movie one day. My part in this has been addressing one weapon Microsoft have tried to use to prevent interoperability: Patents.

"Microsoft applied for two patents around XML use in word processors in New Zealand. These patents were not innovative, in that several word processors including OpenOffice, AbiWord and KWord were all doing this in 2002. The NZOSS opposed both of these patents on the basis they were trying to patent things that clearly had prior art, and were totally obvious.

"Had these patents not been opposed, Microsoft would have been able to threaten other word processing applications that used XML to store documents, and would thus be able to prevent interoperability.

"In other words these patents would prevent other companies from delivering applications capable of interoperation with Microsoft's new XML document formats.

"In the US these patents were actually rejected by the USPTO, and so Microsoft kindly made a declaration that they would not sue those who used their (non-existent) patents to read their file formats. So in summary the first practical objection is that patents are being used by large monopolies to protect themselves from competition; the exact opposite of the initial intent of patents.

"So we might ask why we are so keen to introduce patents? Well, as an Australian in the IT industry you already know what Australia gave up to get a Free Trade Deal with the US. Yes; changes to patent law that were to the advantage of US based multinationals. What did Australia get in return?

"New Zealand is putting new patent legislation in place now that are beneficial to these same multinational companies. By doing this we are burning our negotiating leverage before we even sit down at the table. Considering the fact that the Obama Administration has taken a Free Trade Deal off the table for the immediate future and that they have started subsidies to their agricultural industry the last thing I would be doing is passing a patent bill like the one we are considering.

"There is of course the argument that we need to have a consistent international patent system. Lets say we agree with this for a moment; the European Union has recently rejected software patents. The reason the Europeans did this is because they listened to the same arguments I make above.

Harrison said the software industry was not in a unique position. "If you can patent software, you might be able to patent any number of things. How about particular methods of making movies? I've already mentioned plot patents. Business method patents may mean businesses are taken to court just for operating."