[Esp-action-alert] Australia: software patent legislation coming

[Ciaran O'Riordan]

(Discuss: http://news.swpat.org/2010/04/australia-legislation-still-coming/ )

Dear ESP supporters,

The Australian government is likely to propose new legislation about the
patentability of software this year.  There's little or no action to make
the government aware of the harms of software patents, so I'm asking for
your help in raising awareness of this.

The recent progress in New Zealand[0], and the Australian government
Department for Innovation's doubts about software patents (see below) should
give people hope for what can be done if they get organised.

([0] NZ progress: 
http://news.swpat.org/2010/03/new-zealand-govt-against-software-patents/)

Some good news is that the Venturous Australia report, commissioned and
published by the Department for Innovation in 2008, has this to say about
patents on software:

    "In this regard, particularly in new areas of patenting such as software
     and business methods, there is strong evidence that existing
     intellectual property arrangements are hampering innovation."

If someone could skim that report for other relevant quotes and add them to
the wiki page, that would be a great help:
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Venturous_Australia

The bad news is that the government then held a consultation, through their
Advisory Council on Intellectual Property (ACIP)[1], and the only reply from
a software developer was from Microsoft.  Here's a summary of all
submissions: http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Australian_consultation_responses_2009

There were also a bunch of lawyers responding, saying that everything should
be patentable.  A few university people replied too, also saying that
everything should be patentable.  The consultation was not specific to
software and most of the respondents were thinking about genes,
pharmaceuticals, or other things.

In any case, the consultation announcement seems to not have reached anyone
who will bear the costs or will suffer the restrictions and bureaucracy of
patents on software.  That means someone (you, or anyone in Australia you
can contact) will have to do that before the government proposes something
really harmful.

ACIP "expects to provide a final report to the Australian Government in July
2010".  A legislative proposal is likely thereafter.

ESP has set up a mailing list for Australia. It's not yet being used, but
it's there and everyone's welcome:
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/australia-public-discuss

Here are the en.swpat.org pages about Australia:

* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Australia
* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Venturous_Australia
* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Australian_consultation_responses_2009
* http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Organising_a_campaign

It's a publicly editable wiki, help sought.

([1] "IP": 
http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Let%27s_avoid_the_term_%22Intellectual_property%22 )

-- 
Ciaran O'Riordan
Executive Director, End Software Patents

http://endsoftwarepatents.org/
http://en.swpat.org/
http://news.swpat.org/