New Zealand bans software patents

From InfoWorld: Its taken five years but changes to patent legislation have finally passed into law.

The Patents Bill passed its third reading yesterday, 117 to four, with only the Maori Party and Mana dissenting. The Bill had been introduced by Labour in 2008.

There was wide agreement on the version of the Bill reported back from the select committee but there was a further delay when Commerce Minister Craig Foss proposed changes to allay concerns it might breach WTO conventions. The addition of the words as such to the end of a clause stating a computer program was not a patentable invention raised concerns that it would in fact make software and code patentable.

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