The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) had recently released a world-first new tool on their website that will help Kiwis identify in one click if a trade mark image, logo or word is unique or not.
Trade Mark Check
According to a recent press release, Trade Mark Check is can be used through a phone, tablet of laptop, allowing interested parties to find out if a brand name, logo, or even a hand-drawn scrawl of a logo, is already on New Zealand’s trade mark register, or looks similar to one that is.
Within seconds the tool can lead customers to clear and straightforward results. Additionally, the tool will provide information about the next steps to be undertaken.
It also has simple descriptions of essential intellectual property ideas, just when they are needed.
IPONZ estimates that there are approximately 10,000 new businesses each year that do not register their intellectual property.
Trade Mark Check stops the guessing. It lets people know, straight away, if there might be a problem in registering a trade mark for a name or logo for a business, service or product.
Trade Mark Check is the most recent initiative by IPONZ to encourage people who are new to intellectual property to get involved.
Benefits
According to the Trade Marks Manager, this will provide amazing opportunities and advantages, particularly for the smaller businesses or people who are starting out with an idea.
Life will be much easier for the interested party since Trade Mark Check can instantly inform on the status of the trade mark, especially if somebody else has already applied to register the trade mark.
Knowing beforehand can potentially save thousands of dollars in branding costs.
IPONZ has been rated number one in the world for the last two years for intellectual property online services, and boasts one of the least expensive trade mark fees in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The good thing about Trade Mark Check is that anyone can use it for free.
IPONZ has launched it as a beta version and wants to know what everyone thinks of it. Feedbacks will be taken on board, using them to update and improve the tool to ensure that it is best possible product anyone can use and that it works best for them.
Real-time bus tracking
In other news, bus users in Queenstown, New Zealand will have greater certainty about their travel with a new real-time tracking service being run by the Otago Regional Council (ORC) for its Orbus service.
The tracking shows the location of buses via live GPS information on each route in real-time, including time away from upcoming stops.
There is real value in being able to see exactly how far away the bus is and so this functionality is being offered to Queenstown bus-users on a trial basis.
The real-time information, provided by TrackAbus, is available on the ORC website. It works on both the desktop and mobile versions of the website.
Bus users can also text for up-to-date information on a particular stop on their bus route.
The trial will help with developing real-time tracking for the Orbus Dunedin network.
