NEW ZAELAND
August 01, 2017
The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand has recently joined the Global Patent Prosecution Highway (GPPH). It offers patent applicants in New Zealand with the possibility to accelerate their applications which meet the requirements set forth in this agreement (for example, when at least one claim of a patent is accepted by one of the participating national patent offices).
It is worth to mention that, should an applicant request to accelerate the examination in New Zealand, the corresponding claims cannot be broader in scope than those of the earlier examined foreign application.