New Zealand has banned software patents
New Zealand has passed a new Patent Act that prohibits the patent of software, source code snippets, and algorithms. The ban is adopted after five years of disputes, delays and active attempts at lobbying by transnational corporations.
According to supporters of the abolition of software patents, the lack of intellectual property in this area will only encourage innovation. “Having specified the list of what is subject to patenting, we give New Zealand companies greater flexibility to adapt and improve existing inventions, while continuing to protect genuine innovations,” said Comig Foss.
The decision of the legislators was welcomed by representatives of the IT Professionals Institute (IITP), who celebrated a significant day when “the old laws met with modern technologies” and became winners for the benefit of the developers.
The history of the adoption of the Patents Bill is interesting. It was proposed for consideration in 2008. In 2010, it was decided to completely ban software patents. However, in subsequent years, the adoption of this law was strongly hampered, although according to an IITP survey, 94% of software developers were in favor of the abolition of software patents.
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“The patent system does not work for software, because it’s almost impossible for normal technology companies to create new software without violating some of the hundreds of thousands of existing patents, often for fairly obvious things,” said IITP Executive Director Paul Matthews. “Now is the historic moment when the law will support our innovative technology industry and send a clear message to the rest of the world that New Zealand is not going to put up with the annoying“ patent trolls ”methods.”
UPD. According to the author of the authoritative site FOSS Patents, the wording of the New Zealand law on “prohibition of patenting inventions completely based on software code” (“it’s not a software program”). In court, this law can be interpreted in a completely different way than ordinary people understand it. In particular, the law allows for the patenting of software and hardware systems with embedded software, for example, video codecs.
According to supporters of the abolition of software patents, the lack of intellectual property in this area will only encourage innovation. “Having specified the list of what is subject to patenting, we give New Zealand companies greater flexibility to adapt and improve existing inventions, while continuing to protect genuine innovations,” said Comig Foss.
The decision of the legislators was welcomed by representatives of the IT Professionals Institute (IITP), who celebrated a significant day when “the old laws met with modern technologies” and became winners for the benefit of the developers.
The history of the adoption of the Patents Bill is interesting. It was proposed for consideration in 2008. In 2010, it was decided to completely ban software patents. However, in subsequent years, the adoption of this law was strongly hampered, although according to an IITP survey, 94% of software developers were in favor of the abolition of software patents.
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“The patent system does not work for software, because it’s almost impossible for normal technology companies to create new software without violating some of the hundreds of thousands of existing patents, often for fairly obvious things,” said IITP Executive Director Paul Matthews. “Now is the historic moment when the law will support our innovative technology industry and send a clear message to the rest of the world that New Zealand is not going to put up with the annoying“ patent trolls ”methods.”
UPD. According to the author of the authoritative site FOSS Patents, the wording of the New Zealand law on “prohibition of patenting inventions completely based on software code” (“it’s not a software program”). In court, this law can be interpreted in a completely different way than ordinary people understand it. In particular, the law allows for the patenting of software and hardware systems with embedded software, for example, video codecs.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/288396/
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