New Zealand’s parliament is considering a bill that will prevent software from being patented.
The open source community will jump for joy if this becomes law.
Tech.Blorge reported today, “The Patents Bill is currently going through the parliamentary process and the committee examining the legislation in detail has added a new line saying simply ‘A computer program is not a patentable invention.'”
Committee members said that a number of submitters claim that there is no “inventive step” is software development because new software invariably builds on existing software.
According to Tech.Blorge, committee members agreed that “computer software should be excluded from patent protection as software patents can stifle innovation and competition, and can be granted for trivial or existing techniques.”
If it becomes law, copyright protection would still be applicable.
