Stay up to date with the latest intellectual property developments from New Zealand and around the world.
In Gewei Zhang v QB Trademarks SARL 2023 NZIPOTM 40 the opposition was rejected even though the accepted mark begins with the opponent’s mark and despite the Assistant Commissioner (AC) finding the respective parties goods to be similar.
Read moreIn Recorded Music New Zealand Limited [2023] NZIPOTM 39 the applicant was allowed to rely on its reputation in a conceptually equivalent registered mark to establish acquired distinctiveness for its otherwise non-distinctive mark.
Read moreNew Zealand’s law regarding the use of another party’s trade marks in comparative advertising in the last 100 years has been through several forms, and is currently close to where it started.
Read moreIn this article I argue that priority is irrelevant to the deemed date of registration for international registrations under the Madrid Protocol that designate New Zealand. The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) disagrees, taking the view that international registrations that designate New Zealand and which have a right to a priority date will have that priority date as the deemed date of registration.
Read moreIn Milk New Zealand Dairy Limited v The a2 Milk Company Limited 2023 NZIPOTM 27 the Assistant Commissioner rejected the opposition by the a2 Milk Company (a2MC) against an accepted application by Milk New Zealand Dairy Limited (Milk NZ) that contains ‘A2’ as part of a device mark in relation to various milk and related dairy products in classes 5 and 29.
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