Software patent bid sets off storm

By RICHARD PAMATATAU

Wellington software house Compudigm has created an uproar with a patent application that about 35 organisations are scrambling to block.

Compudigm wants to patent methodology and software that allows the relationships between sets of data to be shown graphically.

Government departments, local councils and IT firms are among the organisations challenging a provisional patent issued to Compudigm by the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (Iponz).

The opposition includes Eagle Technology, the Whangarei District Council, the Rotorua District Council, the Hawkes Bay Regional Council, MetService, Niwa, Auckland software company Reveal, US-based MapInfo, Explorer Graphics, Hikurangi Forest Farms and the Upper Hutt City Council.

They claim computer technology has been used to map the relationships between data for more than 30 years, the concepts around mapping data have been used for centuries and there is nothing unique about what Compudigm is trying to patent.

The case echoes the granting locally of a patent covering e-commerce transactions to Canadian firm DE Technologies.

Last year, DE billed small e-commerce operators it believed were infringing on its patent, which has also been granted in Australia and the United States.


Bob Sykes, manager at the Iponz hearings office, said the number of organisations opposing the Compudigm patent was high and his department was reviewing them.

"We will be looking at the quality of the argument."

The hearings office could call for further material to support the cases. Sykes noted that sometimes finding an expert in these fields was hard.

Carl Harrap, patent attorney at Auckland's Baldwins, said the groups opposing Compudigm had gained an extension of time to present their cases.

Iponz needed to think hard about what it might award a patent for - in this case it was a methodology already in use and had been for some time, he said.

Robert Sanson, a research veterinarian at Agriquality, said the application was nonsense.

He works as a vet epidemiologist and, as part of PhD studies in the early 1990s, developed a system that looked at presenting the relationships between differing data sets.

For a company to say it had invented a new way of managing and presenting data using computer software like this was silly, he said.

A lot of free software already allowed people do this task.

Neven Hill, Rotorua District Council's manager of information, said the patent application was cheeky and if awarded would put up costs for his council.

The software provider would have to pay royalties to Compudigm and then charge the council more, and it would have to pass costs on to ratepayers, he said.

The council had been using geographic information systems (GIS) for more than a decade, running them on software from overseas.

"There is nothing new or special about what Compudigm wants to patent," said Hill.

David Corrick, managing director of Reveal, said Iponz should do more homework before awarding patents.

"We are opposed to it because other companies are doing this already."

David Hory, GIS manager at systems integrator Eagle Technology, said a patent approval would have serious implications for its customers.

Eagle had more than 100 customers using GIS software supplied by American firm ESRI.

Hory said if a patent was awarded they could also be asked either to pay a royalty to Compudigm or to stop using the systems.

Andrew Cardno, the Las Vegas-based chief executive of Compudigm, could not be reached for comment.

He said a few weeks ago that his company did not intend to claim rights over pre-existing technology and would be unlikely to strongly enforce its patents in New Zealand.

Compudigm's patent application can be viewed online.