New Zealand’s IP shake-up: a bold experiment in trusting inventor

ANALYSIS: Required is leadership from universities, commitment from senior academics, and a collective willingness to re-imagine how research careers are built.

Scientists and academics working on eligible, government-funded research will hold first rights to commercialise.

Rod McNaughton Sat, 15 Nov 2025

New Zealand has just rewritten the rules for who commercialises innovation. The Government’s new national intellectual property (IP) policy gives university researchers the first right to commercialise inventions from projects funded through the science, innovation, and technology

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