All Topics

A licensing agreement lets one business use intellectual property another business owns, without transferring ownership. Companies in the same group in New Zealand often share a brand or a system with nothing in writing. Each company remains a separate legal entity under the Companies Act 1993, regardless of who owns the shares. An undocumented arrangement gives the user no right it can prove and no right it can defend. That gap shows up when a shareholder falls out, an entity sells, or a liquidator arrives.

In New Zealand commercial disputes, courts decide cases based on what can be proved rather than what parties believe happened; before filing a claim, businesses should gather all versions of the contract and related correspondence, document the breach with contemporaneous evidence, and quantify their loss with supporting financial records.

New Zealand's Modern Slavery Bill marks a significant development in global anti-slavery legislation, joining jurisdictions like the UK, Australia, and California in requiring large companies to report on slavery and human trafficking risks. How does this new framework compare to existing international standards, and what implications will it have for businesses operating across multiple jurisdictions?