NZ IT industry mobilises to fight TPP software patent threat
New Zealand’s largest IT industry body, the Institute of IT Professionals, has backed concerns expressed by the New Zealand Open Source Society late last month that the country might capitulate over software patents.
New Zealand largely banned patent protection for software two years ago but there are signs in leaked Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement documents that it is prepared to reintroduce them in return for better market access for its dairy products.
Ian Taylor, president of IITP and CEO of Dunedin tech firm Animation Research, has written to Trade Minister Tim Groser over the industry’s concerns.
"We’re an export-driven sector, so we love free trade", Taylor said. "However this can’t come at the cost of the future of the technology industry, and that’s what it will be if New Zealand’s current law banning software patents is traded away in the TPP."
Last month, the NZOSS president Dave Lane said he was "livid" at the government’s capitulation.
"That is just another suggestion of how disconnected the government and the negotiators are from the interests of New Zealanders," Lane said.
"We are entirely unimpressed with the government’s position on this and think they are literally selling us to corporate interests."
InternetNZ also expressed its concern today over the secrecy of the trade negotiation as protests were organised across the country.
