Curran Clare: Patents Bill — In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCurran Clare: Patents Bill — In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 27 August 2013. Volume:693;Page:12978. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South): This is a historic day for intellectual property in New Zealand and Labour supports this bill the Patents Bill. This bill was introduced on 9 July 2008 by the Hon Judith Tizard. It had its first reading on 5 May 2009 and the Commerce Committee which was chaired by the Hon Lianne Dalziel reported back on 30 March 2010. It has had a long journey.It has some core principles that underpin it. Those principles are to attempt the balance of two interests: first to allow innovators to profit from their inventions and second to ensure that the monopoly rights that accompany patents are not unduly exploited. New Zealand’s existing patent law is too generous to those people who seek patents. This law has to be updated. It has to be modernised. But we believe that too many corporations have monopoly rights and many multinational corporations can get patent rights to inventions inside New Zealand that would not be protected overseas.As I said this is a historic day for intellectual property in New Zealand. Our economy is still reliant largely on exports that are weight exports—on products that are loaded on to ships and channelled through our ports. Increasingly we are seeing a weightless economy emerge where the new innovators use code as their currency and where inventions rely on their ability to adapt and adopt technology. They rely on the ability to invent and innovate on the basis of lines of code. Those inventors are our new artisans but they are also our artists because they build on what has gone before as do musicians painters authors and dancers. We need to back them. That is why this bill is so important. It sets the framework for intellectual property in New Zealand and it sets the framework on which we can build more intellectual capital.I would like to briefly note some of the comments that were made by the IT industry upon the conclusion of the negotiated settlement around the exclusion of software from being patentable which is included in this bill. I would also like to again commend the Minister of Commerce for ultimately understanding and being prepared to listen to the industry and for allowing that negotiated settlement which has resulted in Labour supporting this bill today.The Institute of IT Professionals has thanked the Minister for “responding to industry concerns clarifying the Patents Bill’s intention to remove patentability of software and for taking extra steps to ensure the law around software patents is clear and unambiguous.” The chief executive officer Paul Matthews said: “The patent system doesn’t work for software. We believe it’s near impossible for software to be developed without breaching some of the hundreds and thousands of software patents awarded around the world often for ‘obvious’ work. Thus many software companies in New Zealand creating outstanding and innovative software live with a constant risk that their entire business could be threatened due to litigious action by a patent holder.” Ian McCrae chief executive of New Zealand’s largest software exporter Orion Health said: “We welcome the announcement. Under the current regime obvious things are getting patented. You might see a logical enhancement to your software but you can’t do it because someone else has a patent. In general software patents are counter-productive often used obstructively and get in the way of innovation.” JohnAscroft theChief Innovation Officer of Jade Software Corporation said: “We believe the patent process is onerous not suited to the software industry and challenges our investment in innovation.”These are the heavyweights of the new economy in software development. These are the people who needed to be listened to and thankfully they were.I would also just like to point out that New Zealand is not alone in heading in this direction in our jurisdiction. Our position on excluding software patents has been met with acclaim around the world in IT industries in many countries. Currently the German Parliament the Bundestag has adopted a joint motion against software patents—in just recent months. The resolution urges the German Government to take steps to limit the granting of patents on computer programs. The German Parliament said that patents on software restrict developers from exercising their copyright privileges including the right to distribute their programs as free software. Patents help to create monopolies in the software market and hurt innovation and job creation. The German Parliament called on the German Government to make sure that free software development was not restricted by patents. That resolution is being discussed currently in the German Parliament and it is looking hopeful that it will progress.Finally I want to say that vigilance is required on this issue. Vigilance is required because I think we have to be watching closely to ensure that this new law provides a sufficient exclusion of software-based patents. Only time will tell that. They are notoriously complex controversial and much litigated. There is not even agreement on what constitutes a software patent. Many can be dressed up as business method patents which are not directly addressed in this amendment.That is why we need to remain vigilant. We need to ensure that we do maintain momentum around the boundaries of the exclusion because they will be tested in due course. We have to watch that the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand and eventually the courts do enforce this new law robustly because there may be a challenge required to ensure that the intention of this new law is upheld. What is clear is that the New Zealand IT community—the new developers the new economy those who represent our new economy—will not tolerate patents that threaten software innovation. That is to be applauded and that is why we support this bill.