Young Jonathan: Patents Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Young Jonathan: Patents Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 12 September 2012. Volume:683;Page:5160. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth) 
: 
 I believe that the previous speaker Clare Curran has alluded to the fact that the previous Commerce Committee in the previous Government really grappled with this situation and it is a very difficult situation— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Previous Parliament same Government—previous Parliament. 
JONATHAN YOUNG 
: The previous Parliament really grappled with this situation. It is one that is very difficult. I do recall the Minister of Commerce saying a number of times in his speech today that computer software is not a patentable invention. He made that very clear in a number of very strong statements. Obviously through this debate and through the Committee of the whole House this will be the crux of the issues that we face. Indeed through that process of the select committee which I was a member of it was the one issue that did consume a tremendous amount of our time to get some progress on. 
The bill that we are looking at the Patents Bill replaces the Patents Act 1953 and it is time that we modernised this legal regime especially since we as a nation are pushing far more strongly into innovation around the technology particularly around our foodstuffs particularly around our manufacturing and also around technology and electronics. Progressing the Patents Bill is one of the initiatives outlined in the Building Innovation progress report that was released about 2 weeks ago. It is the second in a series of six progress reports under the Government’s Business Growth Agenda. We know that for our inventors our innovators and our manufacturing companies and in order to protect our intellectual property to innovate and to get the gains that we know this will bring to our country and our economy having a very effective and modern and robust patent regime is incredibly important. 
Probably about 3 years ago I visited the Central Taiwan Science Park where a growing group of companies cluster to engage in fields such as information and communications technology biotechnology precision machinery and optoelectronics. This Central Taiwan Science Park generated over $9 billion in 2008 with total revenue of all three of Taiwan’s science parks generating $58 billion revenue—in a nation that is approximately the same geographic size of New Zealand and in a nation that is probably four times the size. But because of its innovation because of its ability to take ideas and commercialise them to supply products to a world hungry for those sorts of products it is able to bring a very significant level of quality of life to its people. In all of this the effective and modern patents system protects that innovation. 
I understand that there is a balance between encouraging innovation and protecting the bounty or the windfall that comes from that innovation. We will get this right in our country. Recently it was announced that the Advanced Technology Institute is going to be set up and established. It will be named after Sir Paul Callaghan one of our great scientists. He said that science could make New Zealand a better place and that is such a true thing. We are focused on boosting growth and creating jobs and you do not do that just by talking about it. You have to innovate you have to invest and you have to then commercialise those inventions and those products in order to get the financial gain from them. 
The purpose of the Advanced Technology Institute is to help get New Zealand’s most innovative ideas out of the lab and into the market place more quickly. It is a one-stop shop that will help high-tech firms become more competitive by better connecting them with innovation and business development and expertise. Undergirding this is a modern and effective patents regime system. Even today the Government has announced it is injecting a further $92 million which has been received very positively in the market place into research that will help grow the high-tech manufacturing sector in New Zealand. This funding is for high-value manufacturing and services research. It is the second tranche of the 2012 science investment round of the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment. 
The existing New Zealand patents system needs this updating. A patent is a right granted by the Commissioner of Patents after examination by the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand. In New Zealand a patent may be granted for an invention that is a manner of new manufacture and entitles the patent owner the right to exclude others from making using or assigning the patented invention during the 20-year term of the patent. The patent owner must make public a complete description of the invention so that once the patent expires others will be able to use it. As we move through this bill particularly through the Committee stage we are going to get to the very nub of some of these issues that members have raised in this House. I believe that we are going to work through and have a system a regime that is going to serve the innovators and inventors of our country very well and we will continue to see and reap the benefits of that great work. Thank you.