Each year tens of thousands of counterfeit products are imported into New Zealand. An easy way to deter and stop the importation of such infringing goods is to lodge border protection notices with the Customs Service of New Zealand. This is now more accessible as it is no longer necessary to pay a bond.

The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) has begun automatically extending certain deadlines due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Prime Minister of New Zealand has announced that New Zealand will move to COVID-19 alert level four at 11.59pm Wednesday 25 March 2020 for a period of four weeks as a preventative measure to break the chain of community transmission. This means that all businesses that are not providing essential services are to close and all our staff must work remotely.

Our office location and courier address is now: Level 7, 158 Victoria Street, Te Aro, Wellington 6011.

Our other contact details remain the same.

The United Kingdom and European Union have ratified the Withdrawal Agreement and the UK formally leaves the EU on 31 January 2020. The departure of the UK from the EU will have an impact on some of your registered IP rights in the EU.

As of 2 January 2020, Samoa is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the Hague System for protection of industrial designs, and the Lisbon System for protection of geographical indications.

We are proud to announce that associates Penny Walsh and Jesse Strafford have qualified as patent attorneys in Australia and New Zealand and are Fellows of the New Zealand Institute of Patent Attorneys.

The less popular sibling to registered trade marks and patents had its 'day at the spa' recently as an application for cancellation of a registered design was heard and published. We take a quick look at what happened and what can be taken away.

IP Australia is in the process of reviewing protection for designs. The review and reforms are taking place in two stages, and IP Australia is currently consulting on both stages.