The New Zealand government Thursday backed down from plans to allow the patenting of computer programs in the face of fierce opposition from the high-tech industry, which feared it would be opened up to harassing lawsuits from foreign multinationals.

Commerce Minister Craig Foss released a supplementary order paper to the Patents Bill currently before Parliament, which clearly stated that computer programs should not be patentable.

"I would like to thank the New Zealand software and IT sector for their engagement over the last few months. I'm confident we've reached a solution where we can continue to protect genuine inventions and encourage Kiwi businesses to export and grow," Foss said in a statement.

The main opposition Labour Party called it a humiliating backdown from plans that had caused uproar in the country's burgeoning IT industry and threatened to smother innovation.

"Last year Craig Foss gave in to patent lawyers and multinational software players and sought to impose a software patents system on our IT sector," Labour's communications and IT spokesperson Clare Curran said in a statement.

"Now, finally Craig Foss has fessed up and admitted he got it wrong. This is a victory for our industry, which is worth around 11 percent of our GDP."

The Institute of IT Professionals (IITP), New Zealand's largest IT representative body, said the clarification had removed a major barrier to software-led innovation.

"It is in New Zealand's best interests for software to continue to be covered through the provisions of copyright in the same way movies and books are, rather than through the patent system, which has significant problems," IITP chief executive Paul Matthews said in a statement.

"The patent system doesn't work for software. We believe it's near impossible for software to be developed without breaching some of the hundreds of thousands of software patents awarded around the world, often for 'obvious' work," Matthews said.

(Source: Xinhua)