“Today’s historic legislation will support our innovative technology industry, and sends a clear message to the rest of the world that New Zealand won’t tolerate the vexatious practice of ‘patent trolls’”.
Interestingly enough, I couldn't fine mention of this in any mainstream news outlet -- not even tech-oriented ones such as Gizmodo and whatnot. The best I could do is a press release from the NZ Institute of IT Professionals reprinted by Yahoo Finance NZ and a Forbes article from May, when this provision was officially and finally added to the bill. I wonder why nobody's talking about it? Just too early in the news cycle?
That makes sense though, it allows software that extends something mechanical to be patented. The example given in the official document (PDF) is software that improves the efficiency of a washing machine. Just as a new type of agiator or door would be patented, so could the software. Software for the sake of software, however, is banned, and I think that's what the title meant. I don't know if I'd call the title overstated, maybe just a bit unintentionally misleading.
Huh, strangely enough I've seen absolutely no coverage of this here in NZ.