Some practitioners still cling to the notion that procedural rules are the servants of the law, but all too often, and regrettably, they exert an influence suggesting they are less servant and more master. For those practitioners, you may be interested in having a look at Tom Cleary (Senior Associate, Chapman Tripp, Auckland and formerly a junior barrister at Shortland Chambers) and my article in the latest issue (Issue 139) of The ‘Intellectual Property Forum’

We argue that the procedural rules at IPONZ need to be recalibrated and attention given to the proper role of IPONZ’s Hearings Office and patent and trade mark opposition proceedings. We also suggest that the Regulations and procedural practices at IPONZ need to be changed so that they can genuinely meet their purpose (easy to state but hard to achieve – just, speedy, and inexpensive proceedings) and, of course, proportionate to the issues at play.

The ‘Intellectual Property Forum‘ is a journal published quarterly by the Intellectual Property Society of Australia and New Zealand Inc. Current issues of Intellectual Property Forum are available via membership and subscription.