Will NZ ditch software patents?

David Heath
Monday, 14 September 2009 09:30

IT Industry - Development

At an Intellectual Property conference in Auckland on Saturday, it was suggested that New Zealand was considering abandoning software patents.

According to audience-members at the recent IPSANZ conference in Auckland last weekend, an interesting interaction took place between Ken Moon a recently-retired specialist in information technology, copyright, and patent law and The Rt Hon. Lord Hoffmann from the House of Lords, London – one of the "Lords of Appeal in Ordinary," also known as the Law Lords.

After Lord Hoffmann's presentation to open the conference, Mr Moon was heard to suggest during the question-and-answer session that the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development was planning to do away with software patents.

Lord Hoffmann's rather taciturn response was to suggest that if such an event were to take place, New Zealand would be out of step with the rest of the world. 

iTWire's unnamed observer (himself a lawyer) noted that "I am not a patent lawyer at all but my understanding was that most people thought they were going to leave the basic principles unchanged."

Mr Moon was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.