I'm glad this happened. For things like copyright, I thought there were international conventions - countries that were lax were hounded by others diplomatically. Is this not the case for patents?
New Zealand bans some software patents
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Re: New Zealand bans some software patents
#12Have they banned them like Europe has, or have they actually banned them?
They say they've adopted UK case law, which they claim is more restrictive than the overall European practice, but even under UK rules, hundreds of thousands of European software patents are valid. HTC challenged four Apple software patents and claimed in each case that the invention was not patentable because it was a computer program "as such" (today's New Zealand bill also excludes only patents on programs "as such"), and succeeded on only one of them, and even that one was overturned on appeal.
For further detail see the link in my first post to this thread in which I warn people against believing what they hope to be the case just because it makes them feel good, no matter how wrong it may be.
Re: New Zealand bans some software patents
#13Country wide spying efforts, but no software patents issues. You win some you lose some I guess.
Re: New Zealand bans some software patents
#14I'm glad this happened. For things like copyright, I thought there were international conventions - countries that were lax were hounded by others diplomatically. Is this not the case for patents?
You're right on. There's a WTO treaty on the Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and it requires patents to be available in all fields of technology. See TRIPS Art. 27: http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/27-trips_04c_e.htm
That's probably part of the reason why New Zealand did't actually ban software patents today. For more information on why today's bill is not tantamount to the abolition of software patents, see my other comments on this thread.
Re: New Zealand bans some software patents
#15Wow. Despite all the lobbying, apparently democracy still works in some countries.
As more and more people write code and become technically literate, I think we'll see lots of this sort of thing. Once the majority of normal people "get it" then it's all down hill for those trying to control ideas.
Re: New Zealand bans some software patents
#16I am really impressed lately with New Zealand (it started with this MP speech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfSGOK5jC9I ). Finally a country that is trying to correct the nonsense that are software patents.
Don't be. This is the same country in which the PM thinks it's ok to literally walk out of a Q&A session with the press regarding a widely disputed bill that's being rushed into law.
Re: New Zealand bans some software patents
#17The real test of this will be if software companies flood to New Zealand to tinker to their hearts content without fear of litigation... or if they flee NZ for fear of invalidating any patents they could have brought on their upcoming software. I'd like to be able to say it will be the former, but I bet corporate lawyers will be pushing for the latter (if only out of a sense of self-preservation).
If the product is created in NZ that uses technology patented in US for example, would it still be legal for them to do business in US, like offering services?
Re: New Zealand bans some software patents
#18Victory lap!
Re: New Zealand bans some software patents
#19Very roughly - if the innovation to be patented (ie the software) is used to improve the operation of the hardware then it is patentable. So buffering code in a HDD chip is presumably patentable (-ed). However if its a new way to display email - probably not. Not a clear win, and apparently similar to UK case law.
(Cribbing off FOSSPatents links)
Re: New Zealand bans some software patents
#20The real test of this will be if software companies flood to New Zealand to tinker to their hearts content without fear of litigation... or if they flee NZ for fear of invalidating any patents they could have brought on their upcoming software. I'd like to be able to say it will be the former, but I bet corporate lawyers will be pushing for the latter (if only out of a sense of self-preservation).
If the product is created in NZ that uses technology patented in US for example, would it still be legal for them to do business in US, like offering services?
No. But then, is selling software over a .nz web site to an US resident doing software in NZ or US?