Changes to fees charged by the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) will come into force on 13 February 2020.

IPONZ has released a summary of the new fees, which were approved in September 2019 after a review. This found that trade mark fees and patent fees needed to change in order to reduce IPONZ's memorandum account, rebalance patent and trade mark revenues, and improve the efficiency of the patent and trade mark regimes. No changes were considered necessary for design services.

• Patent renewal and application maintenance fees will increase;
• Filing and examiniation request fees will increase;
• A new "excess claims" fee will apply to accepted patent applications if the complete specification contains 30 or more claims at any point during the examination process. This only applies if the request is made on or after 13 February 2020.
• Some amendment fees will increase;
• Restoration fees will increase.
• Trad mark renewal fees will decrease.
• The fee for applications to register a trade mark will decrease.
• The fee for a request for combined search and preliminary advice will decrease.