Intellectual property and information technology

Is your business spam compliant?: new anti-spam legislation for New Zealand
New Zealand has joined the worldwide legislative battle against spam with the passing of the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act earlier this year. The new legislation is expected to come into effect on 5 September 2007, following a six-month grace period to allow time for businesses to ensure that their existing practices and policies are compliant with the Act.

Trade mark registration denied in "purely defensive" application
Defensive trade marks are a thing of the past in New Zealand following the abolition of defensive registrations under the Trade Mark Act in 2002 but, as illustrated in a recent High Court case, this hasn't stopped applicants from trying to achieve the same result through a different route.

Copyright: sculptures and t-shirts
The High Court has ruled on the ambit of s73 of the Copyright Act 1994 and assessed the extent to which a work of sculpture displayed in a public place can be reproduced in two dimensions for profit.

Enquiries and information

For more information on any of the cases, articles and features in Commercial Quarterly, please email Diane Graham or call her on 64 9 916 8849.