New Zealand to Outlaw Software Patents

The government of New Zealand is known for rolling over for the American government and international corporations, but today its actions surprise the community. Local authorities have for some reason decided to outlaw software patents. Local media reports reveal that after 5 years the country has finally passed a new Patents Bill which will effectively ban software patents.

This fight was never easy, because there was a lot of lobbying from multinational patent trolls who struggled to keep their business alive. The country’s Commerce Minister Craig Foss welcomed the modernization of the patents legislation, calling it a “significant step towards driving innovation”. The Minister claimed that by clarifying what can be patented, local businesses will be more flexible to adapt and improve existing inventions, at the same time continuing to protect genuine innovations.

It was in 2008 that the Patents Bill was first drafted. Then in 2010, the Commerce Select Committee also advised a total ban on software patents. But for some reason this plan was later reversed by a government committee. Perhaps, the theory was that the changes had been made in order to accommodate the United States, because New Zealand is currently involved in negotiations with Washington to sign a treaty called the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.

The United States is known as anti-troll, while at the same time pro-copyright, so this has led some trade negotiators to defend software patents. However, the industry experts think that patents don’t work for software, because it makes it close to impossible for technology companies to create new software without breaching hundreds of thousands of existing software patents, often for obvious work.