INDEPENDENT NEWS

NZICT applauds the Patents Bill amendments

Published: Thu 30 Aug 2012 10:50 AM
For Immediate Release
NZICT applauds the Patents Bill amendments
Changes to sixty-year old legislation will protect inventions and encourage technical innovation
Last week, the Government released a progress report on Building Innovation. One of the objectives mentioned in the report is to improve intellectual property settings for the country. As part of this, the Government announced that one of its core policies was to align New Zealand's patent settings with its trading partners.
NZICT, the national industry body representing the technology sector is in agreement with the changes and believes the Bill will encourage new technology developments.
Candace Kinser, CEO of NZICT commented, “The amended law is in line with the position advocated by NZICT, and will provide greater certainty and an easier path to export markets for innovators with more consistent rules and expectations around intellectual property settings.”
This Bill will aim to align New Zealand with Australian laws for processing patents to create a single trans-Tasman patents examination regime, and bring our process into international best practice standards.
Importantly, Clause 15(3A) would have excluded computer programs from patentability, stating that “a computer program is not a patentable invention”. If passed into law, the clause would have been unique in the world, adding to filing costs for multi-country patent applications and discriminatory for New Zealand. Clearly that would have been inconsistent with the objective of enhancing exports and cross-border trade.
Kinser says, “We would like to congratulate Honorable Craig Foss on the Government's announcement, and agree that this move will encourage Kiwi business exports and make trading with our key partners easier through alignment with world-wide best practices.”
The supplementary order paper is available at http://www.legislation.govt.nz/sop/government/2012/0120/latest/DLM4688702.html
ends

Next in New Zealand politics

Concerns Conveyed To China Over Cyber Activity
By: New Zealand Government
Parliamentary Network Breached By The PRC
By: New Zealand Government
GDP Decline Reinforces Government’s Fiscal Plan
By: New Zealand Government
Tax Cuts Now Even More Irresponsible
By: New Zealand Labour Party
New Zealand Provides Further Humanitarian Support To Gaza And The West Bank
By: New Zealand Government
High Court Judge Appointed
By: New Zealand Government
View as: DESKTOP | MOBILE © Scoop Media