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• Talley’s source of contention

  An overlooked part of Talley’s Group’s defamation case against TVNZ is its attempt to get TVNZ to disclose its confidential sources. It applied to court to make TVNZ give them up. This was a real test of our journalist source protection regime. In the two leading cases up to now, the courts had (effectively) refused...

• Patent Filing Trends in 2025 Show Impact of AI and Continued Decline in Listed Firm Share

  The Australian and New Zealand patent filing landscape in 2025 was marked by the continuation of established market trends alongside a striking new development that has potentially significant implications for both the patent system and the patent attorney profession.  Total standard patent applications filed in Australia decreased marginally by 0.4% to 30,327, representing the third...

• The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior

  In 1985, a Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior exploded in Auckland Harbor. The arrest of two French intelligence officers for the crime sparked an international scandal.

• A note about data breaches

  It’s becoming a regular thing to see hackers get hold of reams of private data and threaten to leak it. (See recently: Manage My Health and Neighbourly leaks. And in recent years: Commerce Commission and Te Whata Ora.) Courts readily grant injunctions to prevent the disclosure of such purloined information, usually on the basis of...

• More Efficiency, Lower Fees: The Trap Law Firms and Clients Are Walking Into

  This year, I’m seeing a noticeable increase in interest from law firms in value pricing. The driver is clear: hourly billing is breaking down as firms find they can deliver the same work more quickly – whether through process improvements, technology, or AI. Efficiency should be a good thing. But when clients feel they’re getting...

• On crooks and Labour voters

  There’s a sort of maxim we talk about in defamation classes in law school. It illustrates a point, and it’s good for a chuckle. “It’s not defamatory to call a crook an honest person”. Because it’s only defamatory if it tends to lower you in the opinion of “right-thinking members of society generally,” see? Let’s...

• Reality Check Radio weighs in on BSA jurisdiction issue

  The Broadcasting Standards Authority has given Reality Check Radio permission to make submissions on the question (raised by a complaint about The Platform) of whether the BSA has jurisdiction over online broadcasters. The BSA has also published a copy of its legal advice on the issue, which it sought last month. It concludes that the...

• BSA bludgeons balance standard again

  I have long been frustrated that the BSA seems to have defined the balance standard almost out of existence. Balance isn’t required because the thing you’re complaining about wasn’t the focus of the programme. Or the programme’s not controversial. Or the introduction makes it clear the audience is only getting one side. Or the issue...

• Inherent anticipation of second medical use claims in New Zealand and Australia

  A recent decision by the New Zealand Patent Office (IPONZ) highlights the issue of inherent anticipation that can arise when seeking to claim a second medical use. This article considers lessons from recent cases in New Zealand and Australia relating to inherent anticipation of such claims.Second medical use claims in New Zealand and AustraliaUnder New...

• Contract review platform Ivo raises $55m Series B

  AI-powered contract review platform Ivo today (20 January) announced a $55m Series B funding round led by existing investor Blackbird, with participation from existing and new investors Costanoa Ventures, Uncork Capital, Fika Ventures, GD1 and Icehouse Ventures. Since its last funding round in February 2025, the company, which was founded in New Zealand but has...

Featured documents

• New Zealand Fights Campylobacter With New Code

  Campylobacter is a big problem in New Zealand.  Reporting for Meat & Poultry, the business journal for meat and poultry processors,  Bryan Salvage says: New guidelines for poultry processors have been developed by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (N.Z.F.S.A.) and the New Zealand Poultry...

• Mediation of IP Disputes

  Susan Corbett, Victoria University of Wellington, has published Mediation of Intellectual Property Disputes: A Critical Analysis, at 17 New Zealand Business Law Quarterly 51 (March 2011). Here is the abstract. Many intellectual property disputes have common features that suggest mediation could...

• New Zealand’s Government Responds To Cyberbulling

  Fascinating post from Steven Price on the new remedies to be available for victims of cyber-buylling in New Zealand. Read it here at his blog, Media Law Journal. Among the remedies are take-down orders and criminal prosecution. More here from the New Zealand Herald....

• New Zealand Overhauls Food Safety Laws

  Four years after being introduced in the New Zealand Parliament, lawmakers on Tuesday unanimously passed a new food safety law designed to beef up regulatory authority, tighten provisions for product recalls, respond more quickly to outbreaks and better meet consumer and export market demands. “The ...

• Kur on Brand Symbols, the Consumer, and the Internet

  Annette Kur, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, is publishing Brand Symbols, the Consumer, and the Internet in NZCIEL Workshop at Wellington, New Zealand, 19-20 February, 2015, Conference Volume (Forthcoming) and Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition Research Paper...

• New Zealand Trademark Protection

  We recently spoke with Thomas Huthwaite, senior associate at Baldwins, to discuss New Zealand trademark protection issues.   Thomas has been named as “one to watch’” by the Legal 500 Asia-Pacific. Please tell us a little about your trademark and brand protection practice. I am a New ...

• Guest Post: Fair Value in New Zealand

  Our article “Fair Value of Minority Shares in a Closely Held Company” published in the December 2018 issue of the New Zealand Business Law Quarterly examines the New Zealand law and judicial decisions on the notion of fair value for minority shares. Specifically, the article focuses on a closely...

• Listeria cases prompt warning in New Zealand

  Authorities in New Zealand are looking into three recent Listeria cases to see if they are linked and to find a source of the infections. While investigations are underway to find the vehicle of infection for the reported cases in Tauranga, a city in the Bay of Plenty region, officials cautioned...

• New Zealand investigates botched sugar recall involving lead contamination

  Food safety officials in New Zealand are probing a series of botched recalls involving sugar because of lead contamination linked to transportation. In early November, Chelsea Sugar recalled specific batches of Chelsea, Pams and Woolworths brand raw and brown sugar because of lead contamination....

• Again! New Zealand Court Enforces Chinese Judgment

    In 2023, the High Court of New Zealand ruled to enforce a judgment of a Beijing local court, marking the second time that a Chinese court monetary judgment has been recognized and enforced in New Zealand (BIN v SUN [2023] NZHC 436). Key takeaways: In March 2023, the High Court of New Zealand...