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This series contains registers which documented all applications of trade marks, including both the approved and the declined. Only those approved applications were registered into trade marks register (series 7416).

In 1889 an Act was passed which provided for the administration of Trade Marks and Design copyrights by the Patent Office. Since 1890 a new trademarks registration system was established, each application was listed in the application register and assigned with an application number, which formed the basis of the trade mark file number and trade mark register number.

The trade marks application registers contain the following information: Application number, date, class; name and company of applicant(s), particular of mark, acceptance advertised, date of registered and remark. In the remark field there are two actions, abandoned (Trade Mark application refused or withdrawn), and removed (Trade Mark has not been renewed).

The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) introduced an electronic database registration c.1997. The paper based trademarks application registers were no longer maintained. Trademark applications went online in October 2003 with no further files being created.

The files in this series were created in the administration of trade mark applications and include papers dealing with the examination and registration of individual trade Marks.

Although the trade mark files have been treated as one series, over time there have been several changes to the trade mark numbering system. From 1868 to 1889, a type of annual number system was used. This system gave the year, the volume, the trade mark file number, and the class under which the trade mark was registered e.g. 88/(2707)(01031)(26)(A)). At some stage (probably during the 1970s) this system was top numbered to enable trade mark file details to be more easily entered onto a database. There are two top numbered sequences. Those that include numbers only begin at 900,000 and continue upwards, while those that also contain a letter (denoting whether the Trade Mark belonged in the "A" or "B" register) begin in the 950,000's.

From 1889 onwards two running number systems have been used. Between 1889-1912, two numbers are used, the trade mark application number and the registered trade mark number. (e.g. 155/753) The application number is also the file number during this period. The second running number system uses just one "Trade Mark number", and has been in use from 1912 onwards.

The process of trade mark examination and registration has remained basically the same since 1868 and the files are of a routine administrative nature. As a consequence, not all trade mark files are retained as archives. This series only includes those trade mark files prior to 1890 and a sample of "home grown" trade mark files from 1890 onwards.

Trademark applications and processing went online in October 2003 with no further files being created. But in practice some papers were topped on old files for few more years.

Although commonly called 'Design Certificates' they are the equivalent of Design case files. Every Design is assigned one number from the time of application, which becomes the file number. Each file contains the application, design and a certificate. From 1959 until 1999, administrative papers were routinely purged from these files. The remaining 'file' consisted of a small number of loose A4 pages. From 1999, files being processed for Archives New Zealand were no longer purged. Thus this series consists of a combination of purged and complete files.

Some complete files in this series were destroyed in an earlier episode of culling. Such files are represented by a sheet outlining the details of the destroyed file, and are annotated as destroyed on the series list.

The closing date listed for each file is the date at which the Design certificate expired. The opening dates on the list are estimates based on a standard certificate period of five years, because opening dates were not originally listed due to the difficulty of ascertaining these for purged files.

Access to the files was facilitated through the following indices:

- Design Classification Registers (series 7720)

- Registers of Designs (series 7551)

- Design Application Registers (series 7719)

In 2001 the Design Certificate File became part of a hybrid system with the files being part manual and part electronic. In 2007 the files became fully electronic.

Unlike patent application registers, which recorded every patent application, patent registers documented only the approved applications. As not all applications were granted, there are gaps in registration number in these registers.

The registers give: date the patent specification was accepted, the name and address of the patentee, title of invention, address for service (correspondence), and whether fees were paid for additional renewals.

Earlier volumes in this series are located in series 18986 (PC 10). (Volume 22 of PC 10 states that the information "continues in register 23 with entries in connection with the 1911 Act" (the Patents Designs and Trade Marks Act 1911) and volume 23 is the first volume in this series.) However, after volume 16 (1902) in series 18986 (PC 10), series 7717 takes over the function of arrangement by patent number and so forms a successor series to series 7716.

Unusually, 7717 is also a controlling series to 7716 because it is arranged numerically by patent application number and thereby provides access to the registers in this series which have no apparent arrangement system.

There were two types of registers. Initially the records were traditional (book) volumes, but after c.1945 they took the form of eastlight binders. As entries in the volumes before 1945 were not in any logical order, one has to refer to the patent application registers (series 7717) to obtain the volume and folio (page) numbers for a specific entry in the patent registers.

The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand introduced an electronic database and online registration in c.1997. In theory the creation of paper files at the IPONZ then ceased (along with the up-dating of the paper registers), but in practice some registers were maintained until c.1999, so it is assumed that IPONZ ran dual systems while the electronic system was phased in.

Records Description

This series comprises the original set of patent specification files (a reference set of which is also held at the New Zealand Patent Office/Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand). In 2001 the records became part of a hybrid system with the files being part manual and part electronic. In 2007 the patent files became fully electronically based.

All patent specification files up until 1999 were culled by the Patents Office/Intellectual Property Office six years after the date the patent lapsed. The culled files comprised the patent specifications and drawings, a copy of the register sheet entry, a copy of the patent deed, confidential examination reports, technical abridgements, any minute submissions to the Commissioner, and his or her decisions. Some files also contain papers of legal standing, Declarations of Inventorship licenses and so forth.

Accession W2581 (ranging from 1863 to 1929) consists of complete split-pin files, which were transferred to National Archives before undergoing the culling process.

Ordering Patent Specifications

Most accessions are listed only by patent specification number, often only to box level. Thus in most cases, it is necessary to know the patent specification number to order a file. To do this, one should consult the patent indexes and registers.

Please note that a box does not necessarily hold the complete sequence of patents indicated by the range of files in the list. Some specifications from a given sequence may occur further down the series list as they were listed individually.

Controlling Series

As well as the indexes and registers compiled by he New Zealand Patent Office, the New Zealand Gazettes contain lists of patents up to 1911. Until 1901, the Gazettes provide one main alphabetical listing (alphabetical by surname of patentee) for complete specifications, plus a few minor listings such as "clerical corrections" made to that list. From 1902-1911 patents are listed in an increasing number of categories, each alphabetical by surname.

From 1891-1903 a supplementary index to Patents was provided by the New Zealand Patent Office. The information was compiled from New Zealand Gazettes and rearranged where necessary to provide an alphabetical index by surname. This supplementary finding aid has been included in the New Zealand Patent Office's Record Group binder (PC) as an appendix.

In all cases, the Gazette listings give a New Zealand Gazette page number which leads to a brief entry for each patent and the patent specification number. For the years 1890 and 1904, the New Zealand Gazette is the only kind of index held at Archives New Zealand.

In 1905, the New Zealand Patent Office began to create its own set of Indexes to Patents and between 1905 and 1911 both the Gazette lists and the Patents Indexes were compiled. From 1911 the New Zealand Gazette publishes only general notices concerning the New Zealand Patent Office, and Indexes are compiled only at the New Zealand Patent Office.

Notes

1. See series 7746 for Original Drawings for Patent Specifications.

2. Accession W5650/1042-1165 are bound volumes with patent specifications grouped by subjects, the documents in both the bound volumes and the envelopes are almost the same, but arranged in different ways. W5650/1162-1165 contains specifications and drawings, arranged by subjects. Unlike the remaining volumes, the contents were cut from published materials (presumably the Gazette) and pasted into each pages. The bound volumes provided a security copy and another access point.

3. Accession W5650 boxes 1-166 are more comprehensive patent specifications, also known as patent files. They may have been separated from other patent specifications for management purposes. If a patent file is found listed within these boxes, there will not be a duplicate number patent specification in the envelope sequence.