Contact us

Normal business hours for our Wellington and Auckland offices are Monday to Friday, 8.30am - 5.00pm, New Zealand time.

We closely monitor our email inboxes for instructions during work hours, but do not monitor them after normal business hours. Any urgent instructions you send to us by email after normal business hours are not likely to be acted on until the next working day.

What to do if you need an urgent application filed in Australia or New Zealand?

If you need us to file an urgent application outside our normal business hours, during the weekend or a public holiday, it is important that you contact someone by mobile phone who can help. The instructions about who to contact are set out below.

If you do not contact someone on their mobile phone, it is unlikely that your instruction will be received and your application is not likely to be filed until the next business day.

Please note that we charge a surcharge for filing an urgent application outside our normal business hours.

Urgent patent and design applications

If you need to contact us outside of our normal business hours to file an urgent patent or design application in Australia or New Zealand, please call one of the patent principals on their mobile phone.

If you are unable to contact a principal, please call Kelly Purcell from our international filing department on +64 27 4456 551.

Urgent trade mark applications

If you need to contact us outside of our normal business hours to file an urgent trade mark application, please call one of the trade mark principals on their mobile phone.

Normal business hours for our Wellington and Auckland offices are Monday to Friday, 8.30am - 5.00pm, New Zealand time.

We closely monitor our email inboxes for instructions during work hours, but do not monitor them after normal business hours. Any urgent instructions you send to us by email after normal business hours are not likely to be acted on until the next working day.

Information about application filing dates in Australia and New Zealand

Australia

Any patent, design, trade mark, or plant variety application that we file using the IP Australia eServices system will be given the date of submission as its filing date.

IP Australia is closed for business on weekends and Australian public holidays. However, an application filed on one of those days using the eServices system will be given a weekend or public holiday filing date.

We can use the eServices system to obtain the earliest filing date possible for date-critical Australian patent or design applications that do not have a Paris Convention priority claim, even if that date falls on a weekend or Australian public holiday.

If you anticipate that would like us to file an application on a weekend or public holiday, please give us advance notice.

New Zealand

Any patent, design, trade mark, or plant variety application that we file at IPONZ after midnight on a working day, will be given the next working day as its filing date. IPONZ is closed for business on weekends and New Zealand public holidays.

Any application that we file at IPONZ on weekends or New Zealand public holidays will not be given a weekend or public holiday filing date. The application will be given the next working day as its filing date.

Weekend and public holiday deadlines

All internal IP Australia and IPONZ deadlines that fall on a weekend or public holiday automatically extend out to the next business day. This includes Paris Convention application deadlines and national phase entry deadlines. This means you do not need to file an application on a weekend or public holiday to meet a deadline that falls on a weekend or public holiday.

But there could be benefit in filing a Convention patent application in Australia on a weekend or public holiday to gain an early filing date if the Convention application contains any new matter.

Please get in touch with your AJ Park contact if you have any questions.