India Reverses Software Patent Rules

The Financial Express reports that since the Indian patent office has reversed its earlier ruling that embeded software could be patented. Patents issued under the old rules may be cancelled and the article points out that "Legal experts point out that software-related patents already granted could be successfully challenged in courts, given the clarification of the law in the recent amendment." The patents that were issued were largely to foreign companies including LG, Nokia, Siemens, Philips and Samsung, and were seen as harmful to the fledgling local industry. There's obvious parallels here to the effect that allowing software patents would have on the New Zealand industry. Let's hope parliment acquires a clue sometime in the near future.