Holiday hours

Our Office will close at 5pm on Wednesday 24 December and will re-open at 8.30am on Monday 5 January 2009. Our website will be available 24/7 throughout this period.

On 24 December, documents may be filed at IPONZ or at other MED regional offices until 5.00pm. These documents will be dated 24 December 2008. Please note that the Ministry’s Wellington Corporate Office will be closing for business at 3pm on Wednesday 24 December.

All applications that are made online, including patents, trade marks and designs will receive a filing date of 24 December 2008 if they are submitted before 11.59pm on 24 December 2008.

All filings made online, via fax or email between 25 December 2008 and 5 January 2009 will receive a filing date of 5 January 2009. Any deadline dates requiring documents to be filed during this period will be accepted on 5 January 2009.

Please note - If information about an invention or a design, for which an application for a patent or design registration is to be made, is published prior to the official filing date it may invalidate the patent or registration. If a patent or design application is submitted online on an official closed day, such as on a weekend, or over the Christmas-New Year period it would be prudent to wait until the next open day before publishing details of the invention or design.

We would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

For more information call us toll free on 0508 4 IPONZ (0508 447 669).