New Zealand's Patent legislation is currently getting a long awaited
revamp. Our Patents Act was actually written in the 1950's and in some
respects it has lagged behind developments in patent law
internationally. There is no word on exactly when the new Act will be
passed by Parliament but it is reasonably likely to happen within the
next 12-18 months.
A problem for many companies, especially in the pharmaceutical area, has always been the myriad of patents with questionable validity. They are often only granted because the Patent Office examination team is not allowed to raise the objection that the idea being patented is an "obvious" thing to do. The changes will enable examiners to raise that objection and this should make it much harder for dubious patent applications to get through the system.
The amendments will also enable one to challenge the validity of a granted patent using a Patent Office system at any time during the life of that patent. Under the current Act once a patent has gone past the first year of its life its validity can only be challenged by going to the High Court. Battles in the High Court are typically several orders of magnitude more expensive than would be the case working under a Patent Office system and so the financial burden of a patent challenge should decrease markedly once the new Act comes into force.
A problem for many companies, especially in the pharmaceutical area, has always been the myriad of patents with questionable validity. They are often only granted because the Patent Office examination team is not allowed to raise the objection that the idea being patented is an "obvious" thing to do. The changes will enable examiners to raise that objection and this should make it much harder for dubious patent applications to get through the system.
The amendments will also enable one to challenge the validity of a granted patent using a Patent Office system at any time during the life of that patent. Under the current Act once a patent has gone past the first year of its life its validity can only be challenged by going to the High Court. Battles in the High Court are typically several orders of magnitude more expensive than would be the case working under a Patent Office system and so the financial burden of a patent challenge should decrease markedly once the new Act comes into force.
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