The EU is one of New Zealand's major trading partners so these patent changes are good news for New Zealand innovators.

Whilst the concept of conducting an investigation into the material aspects of a commercial transaction is not new, such due diligence investigations often focus on the tangible assets and ignore or at least give insufficient weight to the intangible assets.

IP issues can actually drive most strategic considerations, so an IP strategy should be aligned with business strategy. .

This is the biggest shake up in New Zealand's Intellectual Property landscape in over 50 years.

A licence is permission to do something that would, in the absence of permission, infringe intellectual property rights. It is different to an assignment, which is a transfer of ownership of the intellectual property.

Intellectual property is a term that refers to the ownership of an intangible thing — be it the innovative technology behind a new product or service, the brand name affixed to it, the goodwill the company making or providing enjoys, or the manner in which the product or service and associated material are presented.