3.8 Territorial limitations

IPONZ will not accept territorial limitations²⁴ in the body of specifications of goods or services. Where an applicant wishes to limit the rights conferred by trade mark registration to a particular geographic region they may do so by requesting that a territorial limitation be entered. In accordance with section 40 of the Act, the form and wording of the limitation must be acceptable to the Commissioner.

The wording of the territorial limitation should reflect that the applicant has requested its entry. For example, the following wording would be acceptable in the situation where an applicant enters a contractual agreement and thereby agrees to only use their mark in the South Island of New Zealand:

The following limitation has been requested by the applicant: use of the mark is limited to the South Island

or

As a result of an agreement between the applicant and a third party, the applicant (or owner) has agreed to limit their rights in the trade mark to the South Island.

It must be borne in mind that territorial limitations will not overcome a distinctiveness objection under section 18 of the Trade Marks Act 2002 (“the Act”) nor will they overcome an objection under section 25 of the Act where the cited mark is not itself limited to a particular geographic region.

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