The purpose of this page is to discuss how New Zealand patent law relates to software, and the effect that such laws might have on software development and use in NewZealand.

Definitions - see the relevant wiki pages:

• Patent
• SoftwarePatent
• BusinessMethodPatent

Current Situation

The Law

The NewZealand Ministry of Economic Development has an online "info-sheet" with a summary about Patent Protection.

Most relevant short quote:

In New Zealand the two main criteria for the granting of a patent are

* It is new: An invention is considered to be new if a description of the invention has not been published in New Zealand before the filing date of the application. No notice is taken of information published outside New Zealand but not publicly available within New Zealand.

* It is a "manner of new manufacture": This has been interpreted by the Courts to exclude such things as "products of nature", mathematical operations, bare principles, mathematical algorithms, schemes or plans and methods of medical treatment of humans.

On the face of it (to a layman), that seems to disallow the granting of patents for an "invention" implemented solely in software.

You can search the patent database at the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand's website (cookies required).

Current practices/implementation

While the wording above seems to rule out software patents being awarded in New Zealand, there have been a number of patents awarded that could cause concern for software developers and users in New Zealand.

The most notable are:

Microsoft and XML

Microsoft were awarded New Zealand patent 525484, filed in April 2003. This patent appears to cover the use of an XML Schema created by Microsoft.

See http://www.nzoss.org.nz/portal/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=284 and http://www.nzoss.org.nz/portal/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=290

Microsoft then offer a "royalty-free" licence for use of the patented XML format, although the licence is (perhaps deliberately) incompatible with many Free software licences.

DE Technologies

New Zealand patent number 505284 was granted in January 2002. It is entitled "Universal shopping center for international operation".

A quote under the heading "Technical Field" from the first page of the patent

... In particular, the present invention is directed to the facilitation of international purchasing of goods over the internet/intranet, addressing all aspects of such transactions.

A site formed to prevent the patent from being enforced in New Zealand: http://www.fightthepatent.co.nz/

Media Coverage:

• Computerworld
• NZ Herald

Discussion

Feel free to add your comments/insights here.

Perhaps the above examples of bad patents are just that... patents that got through because the patent examiner thought "it looked technical enough" or something. Maybe these should be invalidated/contested. -- JohnMcPherson