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Subject: Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand discussion

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  • From: "Danyl Strype" <strypey AT riseup.net>
  • To: cc-nz AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Cc-nz] [off-topic] Submissions close on NZ patents bill
  • Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2009 03:18:41 +1200

Kia ora koutou

Those of you interested in the wider free culture movement of which CC is an expression may be interested to read a commentary I posted on Aotearoa.Indymedia.org, on the proposed changes to the NZ patent system, coming from a free culture perspective.
http://indymedia.org.nz/article/77457/submissions-close-new-patents-bill

Some key points and references cut and pasted below.

Ng? mihi nui
Danyl Strype

Public submissions recently closed on the new patents bill. The bill was
put together by the last Labour government over the last decade, to
replace the old 1953 Patents Act, and continues to progress through
parliament under National:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/SC/MakeSub/e/c/4/49SCCOpatentsbill200907021-Patents-Bill.htm <<

So what is to be done? Currently, the only way to prevent an invention
being patented is to document it first. In theory, if you publish it,
the documentation then counts as 'prior art', and nobody can take out a
patent on that method. In practice, you have to be able prove to a court
of law that you published before the challenger filed their patents.
That's where the OpenPatent comes in, one of a number of initiatives to
create a free/ open/ shared equivalent of patents. Publishing a
description of an invention on OpenPatent creates prior art,
simultanously preventing a patent being granted, and accomplishing the
goal of patents - adding to the sum of human knowledge - without the
need for a state-imposed monopoly:
http://www.openpatents.net/

Another initiative is the Software Patent Institute. They collect an
archive of prior art relating to software, in a defensive attempt to
limit the instances of Patent Offices giving away monopolies in areas
that are too broad:
http//www.spi.org

Another project taking this approach of being an archive of prior art in
http://www.openpatents.net/ <<

--
"A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular."
- Adlai E. Stevenson Jr

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and
those who matter don't mind."
- Dr Suess

http://strypey.orconhosting.net.nz/contacts.html



  • [Cc-nz] [off-topic] Submissions close on NZ patents bill, Danyl Strype, 07/17/2009

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