..on Tue, Apr 06, 2010 at 11:01:32AM +1200, Luke Duncalfe wrote:
>
> I was heartened but then disheartened after reading a comment on reddit
> from a patent writer in the US -
>
> http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/bkfjy/new_zealand_rules_out_software_patents_in_new/c0n8its
>
> I have no way of knowing how correct the post is, or whether the same
> can be said for New Zealand. Thoughts anyone?
I don't know what the impact on patents and software patentability in New
Zealand is currently but I think the second comment in that thread has a clear
view on the matter.
The first comment is being deliberately misleading. There /are/ numerous actual
patents granted to ideas expressed purely in software, the famous Amazon One
Click shopping, or a patent on the progress bar (1984), 'Online Tests',
'Streaming Media', 'Online Gaming' being some examples. There are countless
thousands of submarine patents on things so general as 'the hyperlink', the
third-person view in 3D games, 'Multitouch' (Apple), for representing a user's
global position on a hand-held device etc.
The actual proposed patentability rarely conveys to hardware, it's
interoperation with the binary itself, methods of distribution and/or deployment
themselves.
Examples:
http://w2.eff.org/patent/
Here's a very good article in The Guardian on the topic, focusing on the impact
Software Patentability might have on the arts more generally:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2005/jun/23/onlinesupplement.insideit
Cheers,
Julian
>
>
> On 4/04/2010, at 9:56 PM, Julian Oliver wrote:
>
>>
>> In the cold shadow of Internet Censorship comes some good news:
>> software has
>> been deemed unpatentable in NZ. Startups in NZ won't need to hire a
>> coatrack of
>> IP lawyers to protect them from patent trolls and hoarders (like IBM,
>> Apple and
>> Microsoft) before beginning development.
>>
>> The greater implications of this decision are much more significant:
>> the
>> patentability of software is widely considered a vital precedent for
>> the
>> patenting of mathematical algorithms, business methods, musical
>> structures and
>> literary forms.
>>
>>
>> http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/thumbs-down-for-software-patents-in-nz
>> http://legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2008/0235/latest/
>> whole.html
>>
>> Cheers!
>>
>> --
>> Julian Oliver
>> home: New Zealand
>> based: Berlin, Germany
>> currently: Berlin, Germany
>> about: http://julianoliver.com
>> _______________________________________________
>> Ada_list mailing list
>> [email protected]
>> http://aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz/
--
Julian Oliver
home: New Zealand
based: Berlin, Germany
currently: Berlin, Germany
about: http://julianoliver.com
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