I understand your argument, but why should you be granted patents on
ideas which are built on commons property?

As for playing with the big boys... Your locking out everyone else at
the expense of a punitive licence with the bigger players... and in turn
again favouring large portfolio holders, that is if you decide to patent
your 'inovation'. And well I would argue your example is a classic
example of an idea which is completely obvious to anyone in the field,
specific implementation are fine but patents in software lock out the
idea from being expressed in other ways... At some point it becomes a
game of time... who can grab the most patents in the least amount of
time.

Your treading a dangerous path advocating patents in NZ. If you look at
the number of patents filled in NZ in relation to software they are 99%
overseas companies.

Your own software company probably violates a number of the current US
granted software patents... Could you survive litigation if one was to
act?

The economic environment of software adhere's to very different rules to
traditional economics and I think business people who arn't aware of
current research in economics and other fields in this issue are the
major problem. I suggest you Take a look at Y Benkler(2002) Coases
Penguin, Yale Law Journal.

The concept of applying common law to Idea protection is recent, there
is a clear idea/expression dichotomies when we are dealing with
intellectual expressions, however lawyers have appealed to this
discourse of 'property' over the last 50 years, which is shame, the
concepts of theft and ownership of 'real' property have nothing in
common with intellectual expressions, and it's unfortunate that we see
the same kind of exploitive concept of market values being applied to
somthing that doesn't hold.

attached mail follows:

Hey thanks for your kewl post Joel

With respect, there is another side to this.

Filing patents gives you a little more bargaining power with the big boys.

I believe New Zealand dearly needs some more export revenue and a catch up on foreign standards of living that we used to enjoy.

Patents is one way to secure this with our good home grown kiwi ingenuity.

We have patents pending.

For example see out drag and drop software licensing system at http://www.cheqsoft.com/downloads/DragnDropLicensingCheqSoft.com.wmv

Also http://www.cheqsoft.com/mathsown.html

Should we be stopped with our initiatives? I don't think so, as in the end you benefit. (We might one day pay a lot of tax
here....etc)

Software patents are an opportunity you and I share. Why kill that? What sort of New Zealand do you want?

I respectfully suggest you see the opportunity this creates, embrace it, start writing and start filing!

Kind regards
David Hingston MB ChB MBA
Director
Chequers Software Ltd
Wellington, New Zealand.
http://www.cheqsoft.com

=> MathsOwn - World class
=> Break Reminder - strategic safety software
=> TimesOwn - the World's best clock
=> Clipboard Express Pro - drag n drop database saves serious time
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----- Original Message -----
From: Joel Wiramu Pauling
To: adsl@lists.unixathome.org
Cc: broadband@lists.unixathome.org
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 10:34 AM
Subject: New Zealand Patent Act... Say no to software patents! Publicsubmissions close march 11

First off apologies for the off topic post... but I think this is
important enough.

The New Zealand patent act is currently in the final stages of draft,
public submissions.

The new patent act is an overhaul of the original 1953 act. Currently
neither Australian nor NZ offer any exclusions in regards to software.
This is a highly topical issue, and one may only look to the amount of
disgust and protest in the EU to realise that software patents are
indeed a very bad economic, legal, and social consequence for a
society.

Being that NZ is currently in the middle of reviewing it's legislation
and that there is no specific exemption applying to software patents
currently. (I.e software patents do and can in the future be protected
in NZ, forcing any competing expressions of those idea's to either
licence, or die in a court battle), it is the right time to write to
take some action.

Any publicity generated, encouraging a debate over the inappropriateness
of applying Patent law and protections to software is welcomed.

Copyright and Trade secret law, should be more than enough initial
protection for software companies, allowing them to monopolise and
prohibit specific implementations and expressions of ideas, but not the
idea's themselves as that's like saying a poet says the 'river runs
cold' in prose, and that poet now has monopoly over the idea of rivers
being cold. Arguably any software which is sufficiently complicated to
the point where it is not drawing on obvious FACT's of language and
math, can be protected simply by trade secret law because of it's
complexity. The combination of copyright and trade secret law is what
software companies traditionally have used to protect investments, this
obviously has worked well.

There are a number of other strong arguments against software patents,
this is only one. I encourage you to write to MP's on this issue as it
effects all industry's not just developers as the scope of software
patents tends to be very broad.

Oh free software exists because the idea's which large portfolio holders
are now trying to pass, are free knowledge developed through time.
Effectively allowing software patents is like telling the bully he can
beat up all the other kids because he's the biggest in the schoolyard.

Here are the relevant links for everyone. Baldwins has a good
delegaleesse'd version of the draft.

http://www.baldwins.com/ELibrary/BSCArticleArchive/Patents+Big+Day
+Out.htm

Actual Draft:

http://www.med.govt.nz/buslt/int_prop/patentsreview/draftbill/index.html

IP law in NZ and AUS:

http://www.med.govt.nz/buslt/int_prop.html

Public submissions close march 11.

Kind regards and thanks for listening to my rant.

Joel W

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