In our article of 22 July 2016, we reported that the Commerce Committee of the New Zealand Parliament recommended that the relevant clauses pertaining to a Single Application Process (SAP) and a Single Examination Process (SEP) be removed from the New Zealand Patents (Trans-Tasman Patent Attorneys and Other Matters) Amendment Bill.
In the latest development, following the second reading of the Bill in the New Zealand Parliament, the recommendation to remove the relevant clauses has been approved.
Therefore, the SAP and SEP have now officially been abandoned in New Zealand and IP Australia has subsequently ceased work on these initiatives.