infoJustice

Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment
Government of New Zealand

Submissions are due by 5pm on Monday, 8 August 2016
Consultation document (PDF)

On 11 July 2016, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment released a consultation document seeking feedback on proposed regulations to implement the patent term extension provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Amendment Bill. The Bill will, when it enters into force, amend the Patents Act 2013 to provide for patent term extensions for:

• Unreasonable delays in patent grant; and
• Unreasonable curtailment of the effective patent term as a result of the Medsafe approval process.

The proposed regulations mainly relate to procedural matters, including:

• The manner in which requests for extension of term must be made;
• The information that must be provided (in addition to that required by the TPPA Bill) with requests for extension;
• Time limits for requesting an extension of term;
• Procedures by which third parties can oppose the grant of extensions of term for unreasonable curtailment, including the time limits by which oppositions must be made.

In addition, the Bill provides for regulations to be made setting out time periods to be disregarded when determining whether there have been unreasonable delays in grant. These “disregarded periods” will be ignored when deciding whether there has been unreasonable delay in grant.

How to Make a Submission

Your submission may respond to any or all of these issues. We also encourage your input on any other relevant issues. Where possible, please include evidence to support your views, for example references to independent research, facts and figures, or relevant examples.

Please also include your name and (if applicable) the name of your organisation in your submission. Please include your contact details in the cover letter or e-mail accompanying your submission.

You can make your submission:

• By sending your submission as a Microsoft Word document to:tpp.ip.policy@mbie.govt.nz
• By mailing your submission to:

Business Law, Building, Resources and Markets Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment PO Box 1473
Wellington 6140 New Zealand

Please direct any questions that you have in relation to the submissions process to: tpp.ip.policy@mbie.govt.nz