{"id":1338,"date":"2020-02-07T13:59:35","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T00:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jamesandwells.com\/?p=1338"},"modified":"2022-02-01T14:04:27","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T01:04:27","slug":"ip-dispute-resolution-in-nz-the-times-they-are-a-changin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jamesandwells.com\/nz\/ip-dispute-resolution-in-nz-the-times-they-are-a-changin\/","title":{"rendered":"IP dispute resolution in NZ \u2013 the times they are a-changin\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article first appeared in the<\/a><\/em>Bay of Plenty<\/a><\/em>\u00a0Business News.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

On 16 December 2019, the Rules Committee \u2013 a statutory body which has responsibility for procedural rules in the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court and District Court \u2013 called for\u00a0feedback on\u00a0potential reforms to the rules governing civil trial procedures in the High Court and the District Court.<\/h6>\n

The Committee is seeking feedback from the legal profession and \u2018other courts users\u2019 (which I assume means businesses and members of the public) on reforms \u201cto improve access to civil justice\u201d by keeping the costs of coming to court\u00a0proportionate to the nature and value of the issues in dispute\u201d*.<\/p>\n

The Committee is considering four specific proposals:*<\/p>\n

(a) Short form trial procedures;<\/p>\n

(b) Inquisitorial-type processes (instead of current adversarial processes);<\/p>\n

(c) Summary judgment triage procedure; and<\/p>\n

(d) Streamlining pre-trial and trial processes.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t go into the specific proposals here, but my preliminary opinion is that they are a step in the right direction. Something is missing though, in my view: a proposal to establish a specialist IP disputes tribunal.<\/p>\n

At present, if you\u2019re the owner of a registered trade mark, for example, and someone is infringing your rights in that trade mark, your options to resolve the dispute are limited. As your first move, you might call the person up and\/or send them a letter demanding they stop infringing. If neither of those work, though, your only option \u2013 apart from doing nothing \u2013 is to sue the person in the District Court for breaching the Fair Trading Act or sue them in the High Court for trade mark infringement. You cannot lodge a claim in the Disputes Tribunal because the Disputes Tribunal is not allowed to hear intellectual property disputes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that court proceedings can be expensive, too, with the unfortunate reality being that most businesses, especially SME\u2019s, can\u2019t afford court proceedings. As a result, SME\u2019s don\u2019t enforce their IP rights as they should and thus are deprived of access to justice. The current system of court-based IP dispute resolution is thus very unsatisfactory \u2013 as indirectly recognised by the Committee.<\/p>\n

A specialist intellectual property disputes tribunal in New Zealand would be an affordable forum in which to decide uncomplicated \u2018soft IP\u2019 disputes involving trade marks, copyright, designs, trade dress (or \u2018get-up\u2019) and confidential information. Due to their complexity, patent and plant variety rights disputes would be excluded. As to who would decide disputes before the tribunal, New Zealand has a plethora of appropriately qualified individuals to referee \u2018soft IP disputes; there is no shortage of expertise.<\/p>\n

A specialist tribunal is not a novel idea. On the contrary, New Zealand already has specialist tribunals for employment disputes, motor vehicle dealer disputes, tenancy disputes and immigration-related disputes, for example. We also have the Copyright Tribunal but resolving copyright disputes is not within the current scope of its jurisdiction. It could be \u2013 but in my view it would be far better to have one tribunal which could hear all types of IP disputes involving straightforward facts and straightforward legal issues \u2013 in other words, the vast majority of IP disputes in which SME\u2019s might be involved.<\/p>\n

To me, a specialist intellectual property disputes tribunal in New Zealand is a no-brainer. Ultimately, however, it is you \u2013 businesses and members of the public \u2013 who need to push for such a tribunal if you agree.<\/p>\n

The times they are a-changin? We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n

*Courts of New Zealand: Improving Civil Justice.<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article first appeared in theBay of Plenty\u00a0Business News. On 16 December 2019, the Rules Committee \u2013 a statutory body which has responsibility for procedural rules in the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court and District Court \u2013 called for\u00a0feedback on\u00a0potential reforms to the rules governing civil trial procedures in the High…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"class_list":["post-1338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innovation","insight-resource-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIP dispute resolution in NZ \u2013 the times they are a-changin\u2019 - James & Wells<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jamesandwells.com\/nz\/ip-dispute-resolution-in-nz-the-times-they-are-a-changin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"IP dispute resolution in NZ \u2013 the times they are a-changin\u2019 - James & Wells\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article first appeared in theBay of Plenty\u00a0Business News. 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