IP Lawyers and their blogs

The IP law community continues to peddle half truths about the New Zealand Patent Bill and the status of computer software. I notice that they never allow comments on their blogs which means that their misleading contentions are never challenged by people that actually understand software engineering. Readers will probably find lots of instances of this but compare the NZ Computer Society's newsletter on the latest information from MED with that of Baldwins IP. Keep in mind that the NZCS is our professional body...Baldwins is not.

NZOSS AGM on Thursday, 4 August

The NZOSS 2011 AGM has been held. Thanks to all who took the time to participate.

 

The NZOSS will be holding its Annual General Meeting at 7pm this coming Thursday, 4 August. Groups connected by video and/or teleconference will be meeting at venues Auckland (at ICONZ), Wellington (at Catalyst IT) and Christchurch (at Egressive) - with meeting business to take place on Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

No Opposition to Software Patent Exclusion from NZ Software Companies

The Ministry of Economic Development has published the submissions in relation to the draft guidelines on for the Examination of Patent Applications Involving Computer Programs discussion document. The call for submissions was clear that this was not an opportunity to revisit the decision to exclude software patents, saying “"In releasing the draft guidelines for comment, it is not intended to re-open the debate regarding the patentability of computer programs, or whether an amendment should be made to clause 15(3A).

School of Law Slams Patents

James Bessen of the Boston University School of Law has published a paper demonstrating that software patents are not beneficial to the software industry. He finds that a overwhelming majority of software firms do not employ patents, that an overwhelming majority of patents are obtained by a few large corporations, and that both the number of patents and the risk of patent litigation are increasing dramatically.

Red Hat Opens in NZ

Red Hat has opened up shop in New Zealand saying it has done so to "further promote open source including Red Hat's Linux, middleware and cloud computing offerings." Heading up the new push into New Zealand will be Country Manager Craig Nielsen. He will be leading efforts to establish stronger links with customers, the open source community and government organisations. He will also be aiming to foster the development of innovative ideas and technologies that can be showcased to the rest of the world.

Google Bid for Patent Portfolio

Google have made a bid for a patent portfolio owned by Nortel. From the official Google Blog they make clear their continued opposition to software patents, saying that "The patent system should reward those who create the most useful innovations for society, not those who stake bogus claims or file dubious lawsuits.". Google and it's partners have been the target of numerous patent lawsuits over the last year, primarily related to Android.