We’ve made a number of improvements to our website and online case management facility as of 23 November 2017. These changes coincide with the 5th anniversary of IPONZ joining the Madrid Protocol for International Trade Marks.

Madrid Monitor

In May 2017, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released Madrid Monitor, a new system that allows users to track the status and progress of their international trade mark registrations.

As WIPO’s previous ROMARIN system will become unavailable in late 2017, IPONZ has now updated its website and online case management facility to use Madrid Monitor links, replacing all existing ROMARIN references.

New Zealand Office of Origin (NZOO) application form update

In line with recent amendments to the Madrid Regulations, IPONZ has updated its NZOO trade mark application forms. Whenever an applicant files an NZOO application, they may now optionally provide a mark description if their basic mark(s) does not already contain one. Please visit our Apply for an International Trade Mark page for more information.

If the basic mark(s) have an existing mark description, the same mark description must be included on the international application.

WIPO updates

As of 1 November 2017, WIPO’s Contact Madrid service has replaced its previous mailboxes for all correspondence on Madrid System queries and requests.

IPONZ has also updated its website links to relevant WIPO tools and information. These include references to WIPO Lex, a free database of IP treaties as well as laws and regulations of member states. These updates may be found on IPONZ’s pages for International Trade Marks and International Patents.

Changes to patent Request Examination tasks

When a patent application has exceeded its 5-year deadline to request examination, the "Request Examination" task will disappear from your inbox and you will no longer be able to request examination of the case. The case will remain at filed status but will not be marked as Abandoned.