NZICT
- New Zealand
- Patents Bill 235
- IBM and MS influence
- NZICT (foreign-funded
pro-swpat lobby) - news.swpat.org on New Zealand
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NZICT is a New Zealand based group that lobbies for software patents. NZICT is largely funded by companies outside of New Zealand.
According to patent attorney Steve Lundberg,[1] NZICT convinced the New Zealand government to abandon the ban of software patents they had announced in March 2010.[2]
Not to be confused with NZRise, which is a software business consortium which is funded by New Zealand software businesses and is against software patents.
Contents
Who funds NZICT
NZICT's membership page, on 17 September 2010, listed 10 "Tier 1" members, 14 "Tier 2" members, and 63 "General" members.[3] Their new membership page doesn't show which companies are in which tiers. As of 30 Aug 2012 it simply lists 87 companies.[4] Their Joining page explains that the annual fees are NZ$25,000 for Tier 1 members, NZ$8,000 for Tier 2 members, and NZ$750 for General members. The membership takings for 2010 are thus:
- NZ$250,000 from the Tier 1 members (61.1%)
- NZ$112,000 from the Tier 2 members (27.4%)
- NZ$47,250 from the General members (13.5%)
- (total: NZ$409,250)
How much funding comes from outside New Zealand
Can you help? Can someone with more knowledge of local companies look at the members list and develop this section?
At first glance, at least NZ$199,000 of their annual membership fees (NZ$409,250) come from foreign companies:
- Foreign companies paying Tier 1 fees: Cisco, Dell, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Ingram Micro, Microsoft, Unisys
- Foreign companies paying Tier 2 fees: Fujitsu, Lenovo, Infosys
Who are the Tier 1 funders?
Their "tier 1" members are:[5]
Voting and control
NZICT has a board with 11 or 12 members, and the organisations members vote on a one-company one-vote basis.[6]
So who decided NZICT's patent policy? The board (which includes Microsoft, IBM, HP, and Fujistu)? Or the members?
Related pages on ESP Wiki
External links
- NZICT homepage
- NZICT - unwarranted influence on Software Patents?, 3 May 2010, Dave Lane
References
- ↑ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:wzDfoNHqC5YJ:www.patents4software.com/%3Fp%3D72
- ↑ http://news.swpat.org/2010/03/new-zealand-govt-against-software-patents/
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20100917012704/http://www.ict.org.nz/index.php/nzict-group/nzict-members/
- ↑ http://www.ict.org.nz/Company?Action=List&DataFilter_id=52
- ↑ http://www.ict.org.nz/index.php/nzict-group/nzict-members/
- ↑ page with link to constitution and possibly unstable link to constitution in vigour on 31 Aug 2012
