3. Convention priority

New Zealand is a signatory to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. Article 4 of the Paris Convention provides that any person who has filed an application to register a trade mark in a signatory country has the right to file further applications in any of the other signatory countries, and receive the priority date of the original application, provided that the further applications are filed within six months of the original application.

Section 36 of the Act implements Article 4 of the Paris Convention and overrides section 34 of the Act. ⁶ Thus, the Act recognises that a later-filed application may have an earlier priority right by virtue of a claim to convention priority.

Footnote

⁶Section 34(4) of the Act. The word “override” means “to have priority over” or “to intervene and make ineffective”. The intention behind section 34(4) is to render the remainder of section 34 ineffective where the circumstances set out in section 36 apply. If the circumstances set out in section 36 apply to an application, the priority of that application is as set out in section 36.