The Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs has announced the release of a consultation document that seeks feedback on how the government proposes to implement the intellectual property changes required to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) is handling the consultation process. The consultation document focusses on those areas where New Zealand has some flexibility in how it implements its TPP intellectual property obligations. These include:
- a revised copyright regime for the protections of technological protection measures
- a more extensive copyright regime for performers’ rights
- patent term extensions to compensate for any unreasonable delays in patent grants
- patent term extensions to compensate for any unreasonable delay as a result of Medsafe’s marketing approval process
- new powers for Customs to detain goods that are suspected of infringing copyright or trade marks.
MBIE is seeking submissions from interested stakeholders by 5.00pm (NZT) on Wednesday 30 March 2016.
Please contact us if you would like assistance with making submissions or would like to know more about the potential impact of the proposed amendments.