Trade Marks Act 2002

Legal proceedings - Civil proceedings for infringement - Acts not amounting to infringement

98: When owner or licensee consents to use of registered trade mark

You could also call this:

"When someone agrees to let you use their special name or picture for products"

You should know that when the owner or someone they allow to use their trade mark (called a licensee) agrees to let someone else use it, it's like they gave permission themselves. This is true even if the person they have an agreement with puts some rules on how the trade mark can be used.

But this rule only applies in a special situation. It's when the government brings medicine into New Zealand under a specific part of the Medicines Act. This part is called section 32A. So, this rule about permission is only for trade marks on these special medicines that the government imports.

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This page was last updated on 13 May 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM164694.

Topics:

Business > Intellectual property

97A: Exhaustion of rights conferred by registered trade mark, or

"How goods with registered trade marks can be sold without breaking the law"

98A: No infringement through use of registered geographical indication, or

"Using a special place name on a product doesn't break someone's trade mark"

Part 4Legal proceedings
Civil proceedings for infringement: Acts not amounting to infringement

98When owner or licensee consents to use of registered trade mark

For the purposes of section 97(a), the owner or licensee is deemed to have consented to the use of a trade mark if a person with whom the owner or licensee has an arrangement that relates to the use of the trade mark by the owner or licensee has consented to its use (whether or not that consent is subject to any conditions).
Subsection (1) applies only to the use of a trade mark in relation to a medicine that is imported by the Crown under section 32A of the Medicines Act 1981.