Generally speaking, software patents in New Zealand are far from gone. It's the same loophole as in the EU that lets software patents be acquired there and a new post makes this point. The author/s paid to post this as a press release, as seen here, going under the headline "Software Patents: the Difference between Excluding Computer Programs as Such and Excluding Computer Programs as Such".

"At the USPTO, patent trolls as focus has been a good strategy for dodging reform of patent scope."At the USPTO, patent trolls as focus has been a good strategy for dodging reform of patent scope. Brian Kahin brings back the real controversy to the agenda by writing: "In a digitally enabled economy, software is of great and growing importance. Getting the right legal, regulatory, and trade framework in place is, or should be, a priority of the highest order.

"However, questions about whether software should be patentable were raised early on (e.g. the 1966 Report of the President’s Commission on the Patent System) and have never gone away. The debate has intensified with the emergence of patent aggregators and trolls as a growing force in the market, along with high-profile global-scale litigation between major technology companies as seen in the “smartphone wars.”

"Paradoxically, software patents are both increasingly entrenched and increasingly controversial. The arguments on software patents range from precedent-based legal reasoning to the heterogeneous nature of the technology, the evolution of the market products and services, and the practical considerations of navigating and managing the patent system."

Excellent article by Kahin. Not much is being said about Europe in this context as of late, which is rather sad. Passivity lets the patent lawyers get their way along with their clients, the mega-corporations. ⬆