To help applicants comply with the standardised format, the IPONZ website incorporates an automatic reformatting function in the online trade mark application form. The specification of goods or services will be reformatted so that:
Specifications should take the form of a single sentence commencing with a capital letter and ending in a full stop;
The body of the specification should be in lower case, except for acronyms and proper nouns;
Goods and services in the specification should be separated by semicolons or commas instead of listed on separate lines;
Double spaces are removed:
The word “and” should be used in place of ampersands “&”;
The phrase “and/or” should be used in place of forward slash “/” and backslash “” characters to denote optional items.
Applicants will retain the ability to file specifications in the format they choose, however, the examination team may reformat specifications so that they comply with the formatting standards of IPONZ. The reformatting of specifications will not change the scope or nature of the specification.
From 12 April 2010 IPONZ will apply standardised formatting to trade mark specifications of goods and services in line with current international best practice.