News

Chinese trade mark pirate ‘caught in the act’ on wine brands

A Chinese trade mark pirate appears to have been caught in the act of applying for trade mark registration of a huge number of New Zealand wine brands. The pirate applied to protect hundreds of trade marks covering wines and other beverages. Read more

Record sales for China’s Double 11 shopping festival

Article written by: Yan Wang On 11 November 2019, the annual Singles’ Day event, also known as the “Double 11” shopping festival, achieved record sales of 268.4 billion yuan (about NZ$58.13 billion). This represented a 26% increase on sales figures for the previous year. The online shopping day started in China in 2009 by e-commerce giant Alibaba, originating as an anti-Valentine&rsquo... Read more

Upcoming changes to New Zealand trade mark law

From 13 January 2020 a number of changes will take place, the key changes being as follows: Read more

Baldwins named New Zealand Copyright Firm of the Year at 2019 Asia IP Awards

Baldwins was named New Zealand Copyright Firm of the Year at the 2019 Asia IP Awards. Wes Jones, Chairman at Baldwins accepted the award on behalf of the firm. Wes Jones (left), Chairperson, Baldwins accepting the awards for New Zealand Copyright Firm of the Year at Asia IP 2019. Read more

A Chinese case study shines a light on superdiverse parties in New Zealand courts

Mai Chen and the Superdiversity Institute have released a ground-breaking report titled: “Culturally, Ethnically and Linguistically Diverse Parties in Courts: a Chinese Case Study”. The first report of its kind in New Zealand, the seminal study reviewed 2000 New Zealand Court cases where issues and challenges have arisen due to parties or witnesses being Chinese. It comprises interviews with... Read more

How may Brexit affect my IP rights in the UK?

Britain has missed several deadlines for exiting the European Union (Brexit). However, there is still a possibility Brexit will happen. The next tentative exit day is 31 January 2020. In this article we briefly highlight the issues Brexit poses for owners of EU trade mark rights, European registered community designs, European patents, and how IP disputes will be affected. In summary, owners... Read more

Trade mark and patent registers from 1895-1983 available at the National Library of New Zealand

A collection of twenty-six trade mark and patent registers from Baldwins Intellectual Property, from the period 1895 to 1983, are now available at the National Library of New Zealand. Photo by Clarisse Meyer on Unsplash The registers were created from 1895 onwards, in the Wellington, Auckland, and Christchurch offices, trading initially as Higgs & O’Donnell of Wellington,... Read more

Announcing the launch of our updated website

Baldwins is proud to announce the launch of our updated website. Our new website has been updated to be easier to navigate and more user friendly. We have improved our landing pages to be optimised for wide screen displays, as well as various mobile devices. The update also includes streamlined drop-down menus, providing our visitors with a simplified way... Read more

Using the names of deceased celebrities as trade marks: Touching tribute or tantamount to theft?

What ability do commercial enterprises have to use the names of well-known, deceased individuals who are otherwise unconnected with that enterprise as brand names? Two recent examples have highlighted that, surprisingly to some, there are relatively few legal limits on this practice in New Zealand. In this modern era of celebrity endorsements and social media influencers, consumers are quite used... Read more

Baldwins proudly recognises our top talent and welcomes experienced hires

We’re pleased to announce the recent promotions of our trade mark specialist, Nadia Ormiston and our patent expert, Matthieu Mouscardes. We have also welcomed Sarah Harrison, and Victoria Watts to our trade marks team and Bojun Zhou to our patents team. “We are delighted to recognise the hard work and commitment of our IP specialists. Collectively, they... Read more