Summary of new patent and trademark fees released

The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) has released a summary of new patent and trademark fees, which will come into effect on 13 February.

The new fees are a result of a review of the IPONZ fee structure, which was conducted in 2018. The new fees were approved last September.

The review found that fees needed to change to reduce IPONZ’s memorandum account, to rebalance patent and trademark revenues, and to improve the efficiency of the patent and trademark regimes. The review did not find a need to change design services.

There is a general increase in patent fees. All patent renewal and application maintenance fees, filing and examination request fees, and restoration fees will increase.

IPONZ also said that there will be a new “excess claims” fee, which will apply to accepted patent applications with 30 or more claims in the complete specifications at any time during the examination process.

There is a decrease in fees related to trademarks. Trademark fees for renewal, for application for registration, and for combined search and preliminary advice will be reduced. Two new fees for the trademark application process will also be launched, but these will be less than the old application fee.