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IPONZ Notifies Two Industrial Exhibitions: A Reminder About Pre-Filing Disclosure Risk for Inventions and Designs

An exhibition stand with a product model under a cloth cover, a blank application form and a pen on the table beside it, and an hourglass hanging in front of the stand, symbolising filing before showing an invention or design and watching the timing of disclosure

The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) published Journal No. 1767 on 25 September, adding two newly recognised industrial exhibitions: Buildathon, to be held at Victoria University of Wellington's Pipitea Campus from 25 to 27 September 2026 and expressly including oral presentations, and AgFest West Coast, to be held in Greymouth from 13 to 17 October 2026, likewise including oral presentations. Both events were declared industrial exhibitions for the purposes of section 9(2) of the Patents Act 2013 and section 10(2) of the Designs Act 1953 by the Commissioner of Patents and Designs, Ross van der Schyff, on 17 September and 16 September respectively.

The journal also repeats IPONZ's standing warning that, as a general rule, if the details of an invention or design for which an application is to be made are published before the official filing date, the patent or registration may be invalidated, and that an application submitted online on an official closed day takes the next open day as its filing date, so the details should not be disclosed before then.

IPONZ's guidance on notified exhibitions explains that notification in the journal opens a six-month window in which a New Zealand patent or design application can be filed after the invention or design has been displayed, but that publicity or use outside the event, such as discussions with potential developers or customers or media articles, is not covered, that other countries have their own laws so showcasing at a New Zealand notified event will most likely not meet overseas novelty exceptions, and that best practice remains to file before disclosing.

What is worth drawing from this journal is not that two events were recognised but the filing practice behind it: whether disclosing an invention or product design at a trade show, demo day, technology roadshow or other public display destroys novelty.

New Zealand's industrial exhibition notification is a specific statutory exception and cannot be read as an automatic grace period for every event; whether it applies depends on whether the event was formally notified, how the disclosure was made, when the application is filed and the other statutory conditions, and for companies intending to file in several countries this domestic exception can hardly be replicated abroad.

J&C recommends that companies planning to attend trade shows, demo days or pitch events in New Zealand first check whether the event is on IPONZ's list of notified exhibitions and whether oral presentations are covered, and put the display dates and the intended filing date on one timetable; that anyone with overseas filing plans not rely on the New Zealand exception and file at least one priority-founding application before any public display; and that on-site demonstrations use non-disclosure agreements, limit what is shown and keep records of the content and date of each display.

Source: www.iponz.govt.nz | www.iponz.govt.nz

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