Consultation on changes to fees charged by the Intellectual Property Office of NZ

Summary

The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) is a business unit within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). IPONZ’s trade mark, patent and design services are fully cost-recovered. This means that IPONZ charges fees to recover the cost of its services from those who directly benefit from those services.

IPONZ has recently carried out a routine review of its fees. The review identified proposals for changes relating to the patents, and trade mark fees structures.

These changes are required to rebalance patent and trade mark revenues to appropriate levels, and to improve the efficiency, equity and effectiveness of the two regimes. Changes to fees for designs, plant variety rights, geographical indications and hearings services were not proposed.

Consultation on these proposals took place between 25 June and 30 July 2018. Following a consideration of the submissions received during this consultation period, two proposals relating to patents fees were changed and the revised proposals were then approved by Cabinet on 11 March 2019.

Amendment regulations were subsequently approved by Cabinet and the Executive Council on 16 September 2019. The amendment regulations will come into force on 13 February 2020.

• Patent and Trade Mark fees changes(external link) [441 KB PDF]
• Patents Amendment Regulations 2019(external link)
• Trade Marks Amendment Regulations 2019(external link)

More information on these changes to IPONZ fees and services may also be found on the IPONZ website(external link).