New Zealand Set To Prohibit Software Patents 90
Drishmung writes "The New Zealand Commerce Minister Craig Foss today (9 May 2013) announced a significant change to the Patents Bill currently before parliament, replacing the earlier amendment with far clearer law and re-affirming that software really will be unpatentable in New Zealand. An article on the Institute of IT Professionals web site by IT Lawyer Guy Burgess looks at the the bill and what it means, with reference to the law in other parts of the world such as the USA, Europe and Britain (which is slightly different from the EU situation)."
Ttitle is misleading (Score:3, Informative)
New Zealand is only going to (try harder to) prohibit vague software patents. The language is still there to patent software.
Re:Ttitle is misleading (Score:5, Informative)
New Zealand is only going to (try harder to) prohibit vague software patents. The language is still there to patent software.
Not only that, but this hasn't made it into law yet. Expect to see intense lobbying by (mostly) US business interests to get this provision spiked before the law becomes final. It's happened before with other law changes for which the initial drafts seemed reasonable, e.g. in the field of copyright.
Re:Makes sense (Score:5, Informative)
OTOH, from wikipedia:
Anti-intellectualism
Unlike many European countries, New Zealanders do not have a particularly high regard for intellectual activity, particularly if it is more theoretical than practical. This is linked with the idea of 'kiwi ingenuity', which supposes that all problems are better solved by seeing what works than by applying a theory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_New_Zealand#Anti-intellectualism [wikipedia.org]
More geopeeves (Score:0, Informative)
"Britain" generally refers to the island of Great Britain in the British Isles, or the British Isles in general. The British Isles is a cluster of islands near Europe, not part of it. The United Kingdom is a set of British countries who share the same monarch. The UK is currently part of the European Union.