What the Zeds have done is really not so different from what the Supreme Court decided in Enfish:
claims purporting to improve the functioning of the
computer itself, or improving an existing technological
process might not succumb to the abstract idea exception
Abstract software is excepted (disallowed) but software which really controls machines is allowed.
"Effectively, if the invention lies purely in software, then it is considered unpatentable. However, as outlined in the explanatory note of the SOP, patents will still be able to be granted for inventions that
a) make use of computer programs where the contribution lies outside of the computer, or
b) affect the computer but is not dependent on the type of data being processed or the particular application being used.
Essentially embedded software is patentable where it improves the operation of hardware, along with software that improves the way a computer runs. Again, this is consistent with the UK."
Also Zeds is a really strange name for us. Correct term is Kiwis or Rugby Overlords :)
IIRC one of the things that the TPP was supposed to do was "harmonize" (read: ram the US idea of down the throats of everyone else) software patents and other relevant aspects of IP law that were near and dear to major US companies.
Since TPP is dead, the IP-dependent industries may start looking for a new venue, as they appear to have been putting a lot of eggs in that particular basket. But there may be a short-term reprieve for countries not currently toeing the US party line.
