But that doesn't reflect a weakness in patent law, he says; rather an under-resourcing of this country's Intellectual Property Office, charged with examining patent applications.

This is partly a consequence of the software industry's "meteoric growth", he says.

"We need better prior-art searches," Auld says, meaning searches for previous applications of an idea claimed as novel; existence of demonstrable prior art means a patent will not be granted. This would minimise the problem of trivial and obstructive patents.

Alternative ways of protecting software, such as copyright and licensing, don't offer as much protection as a patent, Auld says. Copyright only protects the particular expression of the idea -- the program code and documentation -- not the idea itself.

The Commerce Select Committee seems to have listened particularly to the open source lobby, he says, resulting in a biased view of the question. He did not, however, make a submission to the committee himself. "I and people like me are not impassioned, like the open source people. They treat it like a religion and they seem to be able to afford the time to front up and speak at Parliament. I'm just concerned to roll my sleeves up and get on with producing software.