Offensive Trade Marks and Cultural Sensitivities

Offensive Trade Marks and Cultural Sensitivities The New Zealand Trade Marks Act 2002 prohibits the registration of offensive trade marks, including the registration of trade marks that contain Maori words and imagery which may be offensive to Maori. While Maori words and imagery are registrable as trade marks, words and images which are tapu (have a sacred meaning to Maori) should not be associated with something noa (common), which would lift the “tapu” from the […]


Trade Mark Filings increase worldwide in 2019

The World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) have released their World Intellectual Property Indicators report for 2019. While New Zealand and Australia saw a slight drop in trade mark filings as compared to 2018, overall worldwide trade mark filings increased by 5.9% in 2019.   COUNTRY 2018 2019 AUSTRALIA 79,135 73,646 NEW ZEALAND 24,483 24,449   The key markets for trade mark filings in 2019 were: Asia – 70.6% Europe 15.4% North America 5.7% Latin America […]


IP AUSTRALIA – CHANGES TO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY FEES

IP AUSTRALIA – CHANGES TO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY FEES From 1 October 2020 IP Australia is updating some of its fees charged for intellectual property rights. During the last 19 months IP Australia has reviewed the cost of administering intellectual property rights and the associated legislation in comparison to the fees charged.  Following public consultation they have now released the changes to their fees. A large portion of the fee changes are aimed at requests filed […]


Major Events Management Act

Major Events Management Act Date:  31 July 2020 Just a few weeks ago New Zealand received the news that their Trans-Tasman bid to host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup was successful.  This is great news for New Zealand sports and in particular women’s sports.  Prior to hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup, New Zealand is also set to host the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup and the Women’s Rugby World Cup. Any major sporting […]


Digital Trade Pack between New Zealand, Chile and Singapore

Digital Trade Pack between New Zealand, Chile and Singapore Date:  03 July 2020 On 12 June 2020, New Zealand signed its first ever Digital Trade Pact in a virtual online signing ceremony – The Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA)- with Chile and Singapore. [copy here]. The purpose behind the agreement is to build and support trade in the digital era, This will complement the WTO negotiations on e-commerce and other international forums.  Some keys elements include consumer and data […]