Software Patents in New Zealand Dead. Again.

Hairy1 writes: Wellington, New Zealand. Minister of Commerce Simon Power confirms that software will be included as an exception to the Patent Bill currently before Parliament. After the initial announcement made earlier this year that software patents would be excluded from patentability significant pressure was applied by "NZICT", an organisation representing the major multinational IT vendors. After a meeting with NZICT on June 9 the Minister initially appeared to change course, saying that a modification may be made and raising fears that behind the scenes lobbying had derailed the transparent Select Committee process. Those fears are now quiet after the Minister confirmed that the Bill would be adopted by Parliament as recommended by the Select Committee.