The Intellectual Property Office (IPONZ) has made website improvements for people using its online case management facility.

This includes to its 'Display of full chain of divisional applications'. So if an intellectual property case is part of a chain of divisional applications, the bibliographical data for that case will now contain a summary of those related applications.

Other areas include the 'Search of Patent Cases by Act'. The improvements follow a review of user feedback and suggestions. The Search Patent Register screen now allows Patent cases to be searched by the Act (Patents Act 1953 or Patents Act 2013) under which they were examined.

It has also made changes to the 'Partial Renewal of Trade Marks' facility.

"If you are the owner or agent of a registered trade mark, you now have the option to renew it for only some of its goods and services classes. This can be done by logging into the IPONZ website and ticking those classes in your renewal request.

For example, the trade mark below is currently in Classes 9, 42 and 45 – but is being renewed in Classes 9 and 42 only," IPONZ says.

It says if a trade mark has been renewed for only some of its goods and services classes, it may be renewed for some or all of the other classes at a later date, as long as this is done within the one year before the renewal due date.

But if the remaining classes are not renewed on or before the renewal due date, any classes that have not been renewed will be removed from the trade mark registration.

For more information on partial renewals, visit their Renew a Trade Mark page.

Other changes include to renewal fee reminders, and to the area of declaration for patent specification amendments after grant.