Many members of New Zealand’s ICT sector will be rejoicing this week, after the country banned patent protections on most software.

The bill was passed last week after a near-unanimous vote in New Zealand parliament; the ground-breaking law has been called the biggest shake-up in New Zealand's intellectual property landscape in more than 50 years.

David Macaskill of intellectual property law firm James & Wells says there are some protections still in place, but significant restrictions now apply to what can be patented.

“There is still provision for patenting embedded software, which forms an integral part of a component in which it is sold,” he said, “it is less likely that patent applications will be granted for inventions of dubious inventiveness. This change is a benefit to both patentees and businesses.”

The change does not invalidate previous patents, in addition to ongoing patentability in some circumstances existing patents could continue to be enforced for up to 20 years.

It will be interesting to see if moves to undertake similar laws in Australia will bear fruit. The NZ decision represents a divergence from the Australia, where a broader range of software inventions are patentable. With reports claiming that the New Zealand and Australian Governments are seeking to align the patent regimes in the two countries, the issue will likely evolve in the years ahead.

A further analysis by New Zealand patent law experts is also available.