TPP May End New Zealand Ban on Software Patents

New Zealand took a stand against dubious intellectual-property (IP) claims by banning software patents, but the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement, which is in negotiations, may reverse that policy. According to Rob O’Neill at ZDNet, “[L]eaked Trans Pacific Partnership documents now indicate the same government that passed that law, with cross-party support in a vote of 117 to 4, is prepared to reintroduce patents in return for better market access for dairy products.” IP protections are one of the main features of the TPP—and one of its more controversial aspects.

O’Neill notes that “[Ian Taylor, president of IITP and CEO of Dunedin tech firm Animation Research,] said it is nearly impossible for software to be developed without breaching some of the hundreds of thousands of software patents awarded, often for ‘obvious’ work.” He further said, “Many software companies live with a constant risk that their business could be threatened due to litigious action by a patent holder.”

In the U.S., a chief danger is that the costs of defending against a patent-infringement claim are often greater than settling—a fact that many so-called patent trolls use to their advantage. The irony, though, is often that both sides of the issue of patents (or IP more broadly) claim innovation as the justification for their views. The question is which side has the most evidence. Interestingly, studies that show IP to be supportive of innovation are rare at best.

New Zealand is likely to cave on the issue of its software-patent ban to implement the TPP. Perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of this situation is that the ban didn’t last longer to show whether it was beneficial for innovation.

Read more about patents