The fact the Patent Office previously granted patents for non-meritorious inventions is not surprising. Historically examiners have only been able to rely on publications in New Zealand for novelty of the application. The Patent Office did not consider the ground of inventive step in examination. However, this is the case for all forms of technology in New Zealand, not just software, under the existing Act.

The previous version of the Bill addressed these failings by introducing absolute novelty, examination for inventive step and no longer giving applicants the benefit of the doubt. It is not clear why the Committee put in an exclusion of software or why the Committee treated software differently to other forms of technology. This is in clear conflict with the review performed earlier in 2005.