Hipkins Chris: Patents Bill — In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: Patents Bill — In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 27 August 2013. Volume:693;Page:12949. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka): Thank you Mr Chair. I will have a go. I am very happy to take a call on Part 1 of the Patents Bill and I am sure that Mr Henare who seems to be so amused over there is just preparing his thoughts on what he wants to say on the Patents Bill because after all it was a Labour bill that has been sitting on the Order Paper now for 5 years due to the inefficiency of this Government. So completely hopeless is the Government that after 5 years of being in Government it has suddenly decided that it needs to progress this bill under urgency.Hon Tau Henare: Do you support this bill?CHRIS HIPKINS: It is 5 years since the Labour Government introduced this possibly longer and then finally this Government brings it forward and allows it to be introduced. Mr Henare asks me whether the Labour Party supports this bill—yes yes. The Labour Party does support the bill. The Labour Party does support the bill—it is actually a very important issue. It is a very important issue. It is a very thick bill. The debate on this I am sure is going to go on for quite some time with all of the significant amount of content that there is here in the Patents Bill.Let us have a look at what the purposes of this bill are.Hon Tau Henare: OK you go and have a look.CHRIS HIPKINS: We turn now to the “Purposes” clause for MrHenare’s benefit. That would be clause 3. It states: “The purposes of this Act are to”—Hon Tau Henare: What’s it say?CHRIS HIPKINS: What does it say? I am happy to enlighten the member. I am very happy to enlighten the member. I am sure that I can read it to him faster than he can read it for himself. So “The purposes of this Act are to—(aa) provide an efficient and effective patent system”—Hon Tau Henare: I don’t know about that. Is that because I’m aMāori—or what? Is that because I’m older than you?CHRIS HIPKINS: What was that?Hon Tau Henare: You heard.CHRIS HIPKINS: No I did not.Hon Tau Henare: Oh yes you did.CHRIS HIPKINS: I was busy talking.Hon Tau Henare: Oh yes you did.CHRIS HIPKINS: I was too busy talking.Hon Tau Henare: You heard.CHRIS HIPKINS: Oh no I did not. Look he is welcome to repeat himself. I know he is very familiar with repeating himself. He is welcome to do so. So one of the purposes of the Patents Bill in clause 3(aa) is to “provide an efficient and effective patent system that—(i) promotes innovation and economic growth while providing an appropriate balance between the interests of inventors and patent owners and the interests of society as a whole;”. That is incredibly important. It is a very important balancing act.Hon Tau Henare: Wow! The man can read! The boy can read!CHRIS HIPKINS: It is an important balancing act—for Mr Henare. I know that balancing is something that he has a great deal of difficulty—very great deal of difficulty—with these days. The purpose is also to comply “with New Zealand’s international obligations;”. Well that is not something that Mr Henare is interested in atall—complying with New Zealand’s international obligations—but that is something that I think is important. If we move to paragraph (a) within the “Purposes” clause of the bill it is about ensuring “that a patent is granted for an invention only in appropriate circumstances by—(i) establishing appropriate criteria for the granting of a patent; and (ii) providing for procedures that allow the validity of a patent to be tested;”.Hon Tau Henare: So much for the whip protecting the leader.CHRIS HIPKINS: What was that?Hon Tau Henare: So much for the whip protecting the leader.CHRIS HIPKINS: Oh come on that is not relevant to this debate. That is not relevant to this debate. I tell you what. Mr Henare should be patented because he is clearly one of a kind. He is clearly one of a kind. I do not think I have ever found a member quite like Mr Henare in this Chamber. We should be quite grateful for that. We should patent Mr Henare and then make sure that there is a clear restriction that no more are to be produced—that no more are to be produced after that particular point in time.Anyway we are getting into the further detail of the Patents Bill. This bill as I mentioned of course is a bill that was introduced by Labour. We will support it unless our amendment is voted down because it can be added to the long list of improvements to the business and regulatory environment that were made by the previous Labour Government. Of course we are actually interested in improving the business regulatory environment unlike this Government here. It talked a lot about cutting red tape. Actually the only red tape it is interested in cutting is the stuff that its mates want to get rid of; it is not actually interested in protecting consumers and protecting New Zealanders.The bill attempts to balance the interests of the innovators who should be entitled to make a profit from their inventions—I think that is quite important—but also we have to look at the interests of society as a whole. I think there is a general view that the existing patent law is too generous for those people who are seeking access to patents and too many corporations end up getting monopoly rights. So in a way I am surprised that the National Government is progressing this legislation because of course we know that this Government’s priority is the top 10 percent—the people who are more likely to be able to access the patent rights—rather than the rest of society. I am pleased and I want to congratulate the Government. It is actually taking a very positive step now in making sure that society’s interests are balanced against the interests of those who might be able to access the monopoly rights to patent. So overall I think this bill has a lot of merit.