Bonum Certa Men Certa

New Zealand and India, Two Nations That Reject Software Patents, Are Still Besieged by Patent Law Firms

New Zealand postage



Summary: In lesser talked-about patent offices, such as India's and New Zealand's, software patents remain infeasible to enforce (let alone get) but patent law firms and maximalists keep trying to change that

OUR focus on the EPO and USPTO often distracts us from smaller patent offices, such as IPONZ, which still denies software patents in New Zealand (NZ), loopholes notwithstanding, just like in India and in Europe before Battistelli (who opened the floodgates).



The NZ "proposed bill was seeking to include software patents," says Sarah Putt (Computerworld/IDG in New Zealand). She has just helped show that patent zealots and profiteers in NZ never really quit trying to introduce software patents down there. She said:

A private members bill introduced by National Party spokesperson for Science and Innovation Parmjeet Parmar, which proposes a second-tier patent system, has raised fears that the issue of ‘software patents’ is back on the agenda.

The Patents (Advancement Patents) Amendment Bill seeks to introduce a second tier system to make patents easier and less costly to obtain and “require a lesser advancement in order to be granted than the inventive step required for other kinds of patents”. It would also provide a shorter term of protection – the proposal being 10 years instead of 20 years.

When asked by Computerworld if her proposed bill was seeking to include software patents, Parmar replied: “The advancement patent is proposed to apply to the same subject matter permissible for a standard patent. Section 11 of the Patents Act which applies to Computer Programs is amended to insert “or advancement’ in there which actually clarifies that the Section is applicable to advancement patents too.”

[...]

ITP objects to software patents because it claims that the time frame is too long (even if this was reduced from 20 to 10 years) in the tech industry when innovation moves so fast. Matthews points out that 20 years ago Netflix was a small-time DVD mail order company and Google hadn’t been invented (until September this year).


This is definitely something to keep an eye on and keep vigilant about (we shall inform some contacts we have in NZ).

In other news, there's this new article By Sudip K. Mitra and Alain Villeneuve (Vedder Price) explaining to patent aggressors how to dodge the Supreme Court's decision and enforce software patents that are bogus in defiance of Alice. They pushed this nonsense in more than one site [1, 2], possibly in exchange for payments, and they also push for litigation (implicitly):

In 2014, the United States Supreme Court in a landmark decision in the field of Patent Law (Alice Corp. v. CLS Int’l)1 invalidated software patents related to mitigating settlement risk. Relying on the now-infamous Section 1012, the Court held that use of an intermediary to mitigate settlement risk in a financial exchange is a fundamental economic practice directed to a patent-ineligible abstract idea.


Well, the US has fallen in line with the rest of the world, except China. In fact, after Alice it's even harder to get (or enforce) software patents in the US than it is in Europe (EPs/EPO).

Vaish Associates Advocates, in the meantime, pushes the illusion that software patents are possible and worth pursuing both in India and the US (both are hostile towards these in court). There are virtually no software patents in India. To quote their article:

Software Patenting In India And USA



[..]

In this paper, we would be discussing the various case laws which have determined the conditions for patentability of software in Indian subcontinent and USA.

So, what is software patent? It is a patent on any performance of a computer realized by means of a computer program. India was the first country in the world to provide statutory protection to the software through the Copyright Act, but from then, the journey has been quite slow as in this era of internet, there is a need for more protection to the software, and we are still an old-school regarding the same. The effect of 'Make in India Campaign, hackathons, software innovations and the youth participation is severely mitigated as India is not able to provide protection, software deserves. About 60% of all make in India is happening through the software. IBM registered 8088 patents in a year, and 30% of which were filed in the name of Indian inventors. The need of the hour is dire and extreme to recognize the software not merely a literary work but as something which is invented on a routine basis.


If they are trying to insinuate that software patents are worth pursuing both in India and the US, then they are liars, not lawyers. Maybe that's just what they are.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Taking a Moral Stand Against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and the Worst Offenders/Facilitators
Any other stance would sidle with moral depravity or moral hazard
France: Apple and Microsoft Down, GNU/Linux Up to New Record Levels
How will tariffs against France impact things in the coming months?
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: What Was Reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)
We hope to finish this whole lot within a week, then move on to election, lobbying etc.
 
LLM Slop Has Virtually Killed unixmen.com and Many Other Sites
There's no longer any incentive to write real articles in there
Sharp Declines for Microsoft Windows in Bangladesh (Pop. ~175,000,000), Big Gains for GNU/Linux
Microsoft Windows has been having a really hard time in poor countries
Links 06/04/2025: Fake Reviews, Privatisation Heists, and "AI" as Smokescreen for Impoverishing Humans
Links for the day
Links 06/04/2025: Many New Acts of Repression and Elements of Financial Depression
Links for the day
In Qatar GNU/Linux Rose From Under 1% to Over 4% in Two Years (or Over 5% If Counting ChromeOS)
It's a big improvement compared to what we saw last year
LLM Scrapers Are a Nuisance, But They're Also a Reminder It's Time to Make Your Site Static
Perhaps the best protection is the ability to endure surges
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 05, 2025
Links 06/04/2025: Attacks on Education, Fake Patents, and Fake (Illegal) Patent Courts
Links for the day
Links 05/04/2025: Tariffs Backfiring, YouTuber Arrested, X/Twitter Set to be Fined
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Offline is For Everyone, Copyright Colonialism, and More
Links for the day
Links 05/04/2025: TikTok Unsold (Still), Royal Society is Dead
Links for the day
Techrights Will Spend the Next Few Years Writing a Lot About Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs)
It's a growing problem
The State of EPO Staff's Health in Rijswijk or The Hague
We're going to cover the EPO some more later in the month
NVIDIA Corp Lost 36% of Its "Value" Since Cheeto Inauguration, But "Gen Hey Hi" (GenAI) is Totally Not a Bubble
Selling loads of unneeded hardware based on hysterical hype; like selling shovels during a Gold Rush
GNU/Linux Growing in East Asia, Windows by Default No More?
GNU/Linux is now on the shelf
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux 'Articles' From Linux-Hostile LLMs
It is almost always negative things and nobody can be held responsible for it except the charlatans prompting the LLMs
Links 05/04/2025: Fentanylware (TikTok) "Sale Looks Highly Imminent" (US), Stock Market Drowning in Panic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Moving Plants, No to Smartwatches, RAID Hygiene
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 04, 2025
Techrights Has Dealt With More Potent SLAPPs Than Violent Microsofters Begging to Hide What They Did to Women
I became accustomed to SLAPPs
Links 04/04/2025: Fury in South Korea, Flight MH370 Remains Mystery
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Anger and Raspberry Pi CM4
Links for the day
Links 04/04/2025: LLM Slop Bubble Bursting and Korea Music Copyright Association Bans Slop 'Music'
Links for the day
Traf-O-Data, the Company That Jeffrey Epstein's BFF (Bill Gates) (Co)Founded 53 Years and Went Out of Business Due to Heavy Losses
Who will die first, Bill or Microsoft?
Why Microsoft's Shares Sank Almost 20% in Recent Months (the Bubble is Imploding)
verified press reports from the past 24 hours
A Note on SimilarWeb
Or why SimilarWeb is meaningless for more than 99% of the sites on the Web
GNU/Linux Rises to Almost 5% in Algeria While Windows Sinks to All-Time Low
GNU/Linux grew tenfold
Where to Get More Gags
A valued reader recommended that to us
Links 04/04/2025: Tech Stock (Inc. GAFAM) Fall, Google Pretends to Do End-to-End Encrypted Emails (With Google in Control)
Links for the day
IBM Said to be Shutting Down Offices or Sites in the United States
the press can no longer avoid admitting that IBM moves many jobs to India
To Participate in Fedora Diversity You Must Use Proprietary Software
Not for the first time either
LLM Slop as Attack Vector on the Reputation of Linux
The attacks on Linux have escalated to information warfare
Yandex About to Be Three Times Bigger Than Microsoft (Bing) in Asia
That's about 60% of the world's population
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Decoupling Updates, Elaho as Gemini Client
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 03, 2025