It is patently clear: new inventions need protection

By Brian Rudman

Too few New Zealanders have patent protection for their ideas, and we're too often innocents in the big, bad world of industrial espionage.

So says the president of the New Zealand Institute of Patent Attorneys, Ceri Wells.

He believes the Government should demonstrate its commitment to the knowledge economy by allowing tax write-offs for inventors seeking patent protection.

Inventors need help and encouragement to get adequate patents, he says.

To compete internationally, New Zealand must export high-technology products.

"The problem with New Zealand companies, particularly smaller ones, is they just don't have the budget, before the product is marketed, to get patent protection.

"The problem is not just financial. Often there's also a lack of awareness of what goes on in the big, bad world of industrial espionage.

"Go to something like the New Zealand Agricultural Fieldays and there are people from all over the world there with their cameras and videos. They are freelance scouts who come looking for new innovations then take them back to their own countries."

Mr Wells, a Hamilton patent attorney, says a lot of the products on display at the Fieldays, whether they are on the new inventors stand or on commercial stands, are not patent-protected.

"The scouts say, 'I haven't seen that before,' take a photo and go back home to their customers in Sweden or wherever."

New Zealand's economic survival will depend on creating and selling added-value goods, not on exporting commodities.

But "there is no point in doing that if we're exporting straight into markets where they can copy you."

New Zealand has come late to the idea of protecting intellectual property. Kiwifruit is the classic example, he says, where the technology was exported without being safeguarded.

"You only have to go back 15 years when Government agricultural research institutions developed something then published the results without protecting the discovery."

Mr Wells says gaining patent protection is not as expensive as generally thought. Effective protection in the huge market of the United States can be arranged for about $5000 to $6000.

For $2000, you can file a patent application giving a year's provisional coverage.

Another form of temporary protection is to file an International Patent Application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, which covers 148 countries. Costing about $10,000, it gives 18 months' temporary protection while the application is processed and examined worldwide.

By filing a treaty application as the 12-month New Zealand patent application expires, inventors can effectively get 21/2 years' protection - time to develop a product and look for markets or a licensee overseas.