Goldsmith PaulPATENTS (TRANS-TASMAN PATENT ATTORNEYS AND OTHER MATTERS) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): I move That the Patents (Trans-Tasman Patent Attorneys and Other Matters) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. The enactment of this bill will implement a modern licensing regime for patent attorneys. Patent attorneys are a key component of New Zealand's innovation framework. They are a small group of regulated practitioners who assist innovative businesses to maximise returns from inventions through the use of intellectual property (IP) rights. In our increasingly knowledge-driven economy intellectual property is of growing importance to New Zealand businesses. Every year around 30000 trademark patent design and plant variety rights applications are made by individuals and business to our intellectual property offices. There can be high costs for breaching another's intellectual property right and for not adequately protecting the investment made in developing new products and services. Having a licensing regime for patent attorneys is the most effective means to mitigate the financial harm to businesses that can be caused by advice given by unskilled persons. Patent attorneys are currently regulated under a licensing regime that was designed and implemented to meet the needs of businesses in the early 1950s. As such it lacks many of the common features found in the modern licensing regime for a regulated occupation—those that allow businesses to have confidence in the quality and standard of service provided by patent attorneys. For example the current registration regime neither requires patent attorneys to adhere to a code of conduct nor provides an accessible disciplinary regime to address unsatisfactory conduct by patent attorneys. Australia has a modern licensing regime for patent attorneys. The majority of New Zealand patent attorneys have taken advantage of the trans-Tasman mutual recognition arrangement to register and practise in Australia and vice versa. It is therefore sensible to look to Australia's regime as a basis for implementing a modern licensing regime in New Zealand. However this bill goes one step further than merely replicating Australia's licensing regime. It implements a single trans-Tasman licensing regime for Australia and New Zealand patent attorneys based upon Australia's modern regime. Implementing the trans-Tasman licensing regime is the most cost-effective means for modernising the regulation of patent attorneys in New Zealand. It allows economies of scale to be achieved in the institutional arrangements for regulating patent attorneys but it will also substantially reduce the cost for patent attorneys to practise in both Australia and New Zealand. It is worth recounting the history of the bill. In August 2009 Prime Ministers Key and Rudd issued a joint statement of intent in which outcomes for the single economic market agenda between Australia and New Zealand were agreed. The goal of the agenda is to improve the productivity and innovation of Australian and New Zealand businesses by deepening the level of economic integration between the two countries and providing a trans-Tasman market. The implementation of the trans-Tasman licensing regime for patent attorneys is one of the key outcomes of the 2009 single economic market agenda. The trans-Tasman licensing regime has been designed with the objective of encouraging and facilitating effective competition in the trans-Tasman market for patent attorneys' services. Specifically it will make it easier for New Zealand patent attorneys to offer their services in the larger more lucrative Australian market. It is a small but significant step to further economic integration between Australia and New Zealand in the area of professional services. This will be the first occupational group to be integrated under a single trans-Tasman licensing regime. The licensing regime comprises one register for all patent attorneys; a qualification regime covering both Australia and New Zealand intellectual property law and practice; a single code of conduct for New Zealand and Australian patent attorneys; a Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board comprising Australian and New Zealand members to administer the regulatory and disciplinary regime for patent attorneys; and a Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Disciplinary Tribunal to determine complaints about the conduct of patent attorneys and where appropriate to sanction misconduct. The bill implements the trans-Tasman licensing regime in the manner set out in the arrangement between the Government of Australia and the Government of New Zealand relating to trans-Tasman regulation of patent attorneys. Under the arrangement the Australian legislation is required to set out the key features of the regime. This bill before the House implements New Zealand's requirements to do the same. Before finishing I would like to correct a misunderstanding in some speeches in earlier readings relating to the single patent application process (SAP) and the single patent examination process (SEP). The bill was brought to the House including the implementation of the single patent application process and single examination process between IP Australia and the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand. When the single patent application and single examination process was first considered back in 2009 they were seen as having potential to deliver benefits to innovative businesses by protecting their inventions through having the filing of patent applications in Australia and New Zealand combined.As a result of the passage of time and the development of new international initiatives it became clear that the implementation of the SAP and SEP as they are sometimes referred to is unlikely to be used by New Zealand businesses and even if they were they would not deliver a net benefit. In particular in May this year changes to the World Intellectual Property Organization's ePCT system for filing patent applications and the expansion of work-sharing arrangements between patent offices were confirmed as proceeding. These will deliver similar benefits to the SAP and SEP arrangements at a much reduced cost. With this in mind I approve of the Commerce Committee's recommendation to remove clause 5 from the bill. It was a sensible response to changed circumstances. The substance of the bill the introduction of a trans-Tasman licensing regime remains in place.I do want to finish by thanking the Australian Government for its cooperation in developing and implementing the trans-Tasman licensing regime. I commend this bill to the House.