Curran Clare: Patents Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCurran Clare: Patents Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 05 May 2009. Volume:654;Page:2887. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South):I rise in support of the Patents Bill which is designed to replace the Patents Act 1953 and was introduced by the previous Labour Government. This bill reforms and modernises New Zealand patent law and it provides an appropriate balance between adequate incentives for innovation and technology transfer and ensuring that the interests of the public and Māori are protected.As outlined this bill was originally introduced by the former Labour Government and therefore we will be supporting it. I cannot help but think though that here we are talking about patents while we are facing changing times ahead and are in the midst of a recession the like of which has not been seen since World War II. Where are the Government’s ideas? And will reforming patents save the countless people who have lost their jobs to unemployment from this recession?Although this is an important bill which indeed needs to be passed I cannot help but worry about those who face redundancy. We have seen Governments around the world spending billions of dollars trying to stimulate their economies to prevent recession and keep people in work yet in New Zealand right now we have a Government that is talking about a cycleway as a good idea as one of the results of its Job Summit. Has work started on that cycleway yet? Well our counterparts across the world have been busy—Hon Member: This is a patent bill not a Job Summit one.CLARE CURRAN: I am getting there. In the US there has been investment of $150 billion in the development and deployment of green technologies and a million dollars is being put into getting hybrid plug-in cars on the road by 2015. In Australia billions of dollars are being invested in investment partnerships the provision of liquidity support and a nation-building package of $4.7 billion. In the UK there is a billion-pound housing package to contribute to building more council houses and to extending stamp duty holidays when buying houses.Hon Christopher Finlayson: Get on with the bill. Mr Speaker—Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I ask the member to get back to—Hon Member: Talk about patents.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: —patents. Yes that is what the bill is about—patents.CLARE CURRAN: A patent is a right granted by the Commissioner of Patents after careful examination by the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand. Patents are very important to modern society and they prevent others from using an invention for 20 years. This right continues for a length of time provided that renewal fees are paid by the end of the fourth seventh tenth and thirteenth year after the grant.The origins of such laws came from England in the early modern period as we have heard. Patents usually refer to the right granted to someone who invents or discovers a new or usable process or invention or any new and useful improvement. Here in New Zealand as mentioned earlier that process is handled by the Patent Office which keeps a register of patents. The patent owner must carefully make public a complete description of the invention so that once the patent expires other persons will be able to use it.This bill updates the criteria for granting a patent and aligns those criteria with the criteria applied in most other countries. The bill defines a patentable invention in clause 13 as involving a “manner of manufacture within the meaning of section 6 of the Statute of Monopolies … involves an inventive step”—as we have heard—“and is useful;”. All of these criteria must be satisfied before a patent application can be accepted and granted. Current law does not include an inventive step and usefulness in its criteria so under this bill the Commissioner of Patents must not accept a patent application for a grant unless satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the requirements for the grant are met. The courts have ruled under the 1953 Act that the commissioner must give the patent application the benefit of any doubt and this bill aligns patent laws to match this important case law.This bill examines the meaning of “prior art base” and modernises patent law. Novelty and the inventive step of an invention are determined by comparing the invention with the relevant prior art base. The prior art base is any information made available to the public in any way anywhere in the world before the filing date of a patent application. Under the 1953 Act it was confined to what was published or used in New Zealand not in the world unlike the provisions of this bill.Exclusion of patentability is also modernised and inclusions are inventions that would meet the criteria but are excluded for policy reasons—for example methods of treatment for human beings by surgery or therapy and things that clearly should be secret or not available too freely. This has been clearly ruled upon by the courts.This bill also intends for the exclusion of patentability to be consistent with Article 21 of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. This bill will also introduce a simpler less complicated procedure to reduce the cost of appealing and challenging the validity of granted patents. Procedures introduced allow third parties to make an application to the Commissioner of Patents rather than going through the courts which reduces costs and the complications resulting from them.The establishment of a Māori advisory committee to advise the Commissioner of Patents is convened under this bill. It is very important that Māori traditional knowledge and indigenous plants and animals are recognised in New Zealand and we must keep this in mind when examining patents. The function of the committee will be to provide advice that can be used by the commissioner to determine whether patents are contrary to Māori values.This bill replaces the current right to apply with a right to grant. It allows any person to make an application for a patent but only the inventor or the assignees may be granted the patent. Importantly patents applications will be published at 18 months from the earliest priority date. Under the current Act this may take 2 to 4 years after the initial application has been published. Also once an application has been accepted all documents associated with such patents become available to the public. This practice brings New Zealand into line with most countries.This bill is intended to reduce compliance costs and to increase certainty for applicants. It will set time limits for applicants to respond to examination reports issued by the commissioner so it will reduce the number of false claims to patents that are received.In closing I commend this bill. It is a good bill—a bill that was introduced by Labour—but I am still concerned that this National Government needs to come up with its own ideas that will keep hard-working New Zealanders in jobs. Patents are very important as is the modernising of the 1953 Act but we must not lose focus on the fact that we are facing challenging times and that people are struggling.This bill intends to reduce compliance costs which is a good thing in these times and patents are a sensible idea and need to be modernised so we will support this bill. But we need to have discussions about how to protect New Zealanders from the effects of the recession. Many people are feeling the pinch and are worried about their jobs and livelihoods. Will they be able to pay their mortgages will they be able to continue to put food on their tables and will they be able to pay their power bills during the winter? Unemployment in New Zealand rose to 4.6 percent in December which is 105000 people out of work. Six months ago the unemployment rate was 3.9 percent. It is expected that that number will rise to 5.3 percent by the time of the next announcement. Budget day is just around the corner and many New Zealanders want to know what this Government will do.Finally this bill modernises the Patents Act 1953 and ensures that patents are more in line with modern technology. It recognises what is happening around the world in patent law. It is a Labour bill therefore we are supporting it. It is a good bill. It is very important that we examine and modernise patents and the protection of property so I commend this bill to the House.