The Reserve Bank today published a revised outsourcing policy for large banks. “The revised policy aims to ensure that a bank can continue to operate in a situation where a key service provider fails,” Deputy Governor Grant Spencer said. The revision of the outsourcing policy follows a review by the Reserve Bank, which concluded that greater clarity of the policy and more consistency of application by banks would be desirable to ensure that they can continue to provide required services in times of stress. “The revised policy sets requirements that banks need to meet when outsourcing particular functions and services, especially if the service provider is a related party of the bank. “An ongoing ability by banks to provide liquidity and basic services to customers, even in times of stress, is an important part of maintaining a sound and efficient financial system,” Mr Spencer said. Under the revised policy, banks are required to ensure that a range of resolution options, including open bank resolution, are available in the unlikely event of a bank failure. This supports financial stability in times of stress. It applies to locally-incorporated registered banks with net liabilities of more than $10 billion, and comes into force on 1 October 2017. Affected banks will have five years to come into compliance with the revised policy, which replaces an earlier policy introduced in 2006. Mr Spencer acknowledged the constructive involvement of the banking industry and other interested parties who were actively engaged during the development of the revised policy. “Our engagement with the banking industry and others has been instrumental in helping to minimise costs to the banking industry while still ensuring that the key objectives of the revised policy are clearly understood and achievable.” He said the Reserve Bank would work with banks to ensure a practical path to compliance with the policy within the five year deadline. More information: *  Revised Outsourcing Policy* Responses and feedback from consultation on outsourcing policy* Description of outsourcing requirements

| An RBNZ release  ||  September 20,  2017   |||

Trade Minister Todd McClay says a trade agreement with Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru could be worth 10,000 jobs to provincial New Zealand and will give Kiwis unprecedented access to fast-growing Latin American markets.

This comes as Mr McClay calls for public submissions on FTA negotiations with the Pacific Alliance countries.

“Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru combined have 221 million consumers and a GDP of US$3.85 trillion, which is equivalent to the world’s sixth largest economy,” Mr McClay says.

“This is an important market for us now, and we want the public and the business community to consider how they might take advantage of the increased opportunities for both trade and investment that will result from an FTA.”

Mr McClay says increasing trade and business links with the Pacific Alliance will also advance the prospect of New Zealand serving as a trading bridge between South America and Southeast Asia.

“The Government will be pushing hard for a high-quality agreement. It’s important we hear from New Zealanders about what they would like to see prioritised and progressed during negotiations, Mr McClay says”

Mr McClay says negotiations with the Pacific Alliance will begin in the coming months and are expected to progress swiftly. Public submissions are due by October 16.

For more information on how to make a submission, visit: https://mfat.govt.nz/en/trade/free-trade-agreements/agreements-under-negotiation/pacificalliance

| A Beehive release  || September 18, 2017   |||

WorkSafe has just launched two new businesses to its highly-successful ‘Around the Block’ tool – a free online tool which has been developed to help small and medium sized Kiwi businesses manage workplace health and safety risks.

The new shops are a bakery and a collision repair workshop. The original 13 shops on Around the Block were launched in November 2016, and since then have proved extremely successful and have been used over 90,000 times.

“Our statistics indicated that workers in bakeries and collision repair workshops are faced with a range of work and health related risks. This tool will make it much easier for any of these businesses to begin identifying and managing their risks” says Phil Parkes, GM Better Regulation.

We have worked collaboratively with businesses to make sure the bakery and collision repair workshop include accurate representations of the risks and mitigations found in these businesses.

Animated and interactive, the tool takes users ‘around the block’ and into businesses where they can click on risk ‘hotspots’ and learn what actions you can take to remove and manage them.

The tool is aimed at small and medium sized businesses which make up some 97% of businesses in New Zealand and targets the owners, directors and managers of those businesses. The tool is designed to help businesses with training and involving workers in identifying and managing some of their key health and safety risks.

The Around the Block tool was built by WorkSafe in collaboration with ACC to help businesses better understand their obligations under the new Health and Safety at Work Act from a risk management perspective.

| A Worksave release  ||  September 15,  2017   |||

ASX-listed Pro-Pac Packaging, chaired by former Australia Post boss Ahmed Fahour, has announced a $177.5 million merger deal with flexible packager Integrated Packaging Group (IPG).

‘Significant milestone’: Pro-Pac chairman Ahmed Fahour

“The acquisition of IPG represents a significant milestone in the realization of Pro-Pac’s vision to become the preeminent flexible and industrial packaging manufacturer and distributor in Australia,” said Fahour. “The opportunity to combine two very complementary businesses will deliver significant long-term value to Pro-Pac shareholders.”

The combined business will have annual sales of more than $450 million.

The merger will be funded through a combination of $60 million Pro-Pac shares issued to the vendors, a $54.8 million fully underwritten equity raising and $70 million from a new debt facility, the company told the ASX in its announcement.

Pro-Pac has distribution facilities in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide as well as six manufacturing sites, providing flexible and rigid packaging solutions.

Integrated Packaging Group, formerly owned by private equity firm Advent Partners, operates five manufacturing facilities across Australia and New Zealand, providing a wide range of stretch plastic film used to wrap consumer goods, building products and agricultural products.

The new entity will operate 22 distribution warehouses and manufacturing facilities in Australasia.

Pro-Pac CEO Grant Harrod, who will head the merged group, says the combination of Pro-Pac and IPG provides “many exciting opportunities” in the growing Australian flexibles packaging market.

“Pro-Pac’s expanded capacity to manufacture and distribute high quality products will delight our customer base and provide us with a one-stop-shop offering. Pro-Pac will be a world class manufacturer without geographic constraints as we increase our offerings in key areas such as food service and agriculture film.”

The deal is conditional on Pro-Pac shareholder approval, the completion of the $54.8 million raising and conditions related to the debt facility.

Pro-Pac last month reported a five percent fall in FY17 revenue to $229 million, with profit after tax diving 28 percent to $5.02 million.

Former Australian Post CEO Fahour has been chairman of Pro-Pac since 2015.

| A Print-21 release  ||  September 13,  2017   |||

Development of technology to help build the world’s first hybrid-electric passenger jet plane is among Victoria University of Wellington projects to receive nearly $29 million in the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's 2017 Endeavour Fund.

Five Victoria projects have been successful in this year’s science investment round, announced this morning by Science and Innovation Minister Hon Paul Goldsmith.

Dr Rod Badcock from Victoria’s Robinson Research Institute is leading the jet plane project, which was awarded $6.3 million over five years.

The Institute is an international leader in the field of superconductivity—a key mechanism needed to develop cleaner aviation technologies, says Dr Badcock.

“Electric planes pose a big challenge as they will require very high-power propulsion systems which are subject to stringent weight constraints. Existing electrical machines are simply too heavy. The only feasible approach is high-torque, high-speed machines that employ high temperature superconductors.

“We’re planning to develop a motor for a Boeing 737-sized passenger plane. This will use an electric drive-train to connect high-speed electric motors with a fuel-powered generator running at maximum efficiency. A superconducting motor will deliver the all-important power-to-weight ratio.

Dr Badcock and his team will collaborate with experts in the United States, United Kingdom and Japan. “Flying is the most climate-intensive form of transport,” he says. “It’s important that a clean alternative is found—and fast. It would have a huge economic impact not only for New Zealand but around the world.”

Professor Colin Wilson from Victoria’s School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences is leading an $8.2 million five-year multi-institution consortium programme that aims to reduce the uncertainty around future supervolcano eruptions.

“Unlike normal-sized volcano systems, the behaviour, impacts and probabilities of supervolcano eruptions remain poorly understood around the world,” says Professor Wilson.

“Global hype assumes any activity at a supervolcano will lead to catastrophe—however, history and the geological record shows that their impacts can be managed. Our project will develop a new framework for estimating the size, timing and impacts of future unrest or eruptive events, and provide resources to improve education, resilience and decision-making for our communities.”

Dr Simon Hinkley from Victoria’s Ferrier Research Institute is leading a team that has been awarded $6.2 million over five years to generate new compounds for use in products that accelerate bone and tissue repair.

“Current therapies have undesirable side effects, low efficacy, high cost, low biological stability and dubious overall benefit,” explains Dr Hinkley.

“Our project will explore the use of complex sugars called heparan sulfates in producing more effective and rapid tissue regeneration. Heparan sulfate has been shown to be an essential ‘match-maker’ in coordinating growth factors that mediate the repair processes. With our partners at the University of Otago and in Singapore, we will build on our current research activities to develop materials that assist in tissue repair processes.”

Professor Tim Naish from Victoria’s Antarctic Research Centre is leading a project that will receive $7.1 million over five years to develop a national set of sea-level rise estimates.

Professor Naish says there is currently a number of knowledge gaps that are hampering our ability to anticipate and manage future sea-level rise in New Zealand—including a lack of understanding of the influence of vertical land movements and changes in sea-surface height.

“A team of leading experts will aim to address these knowledge gaps, and to generate a set of probabilistic sea-level rise scenarios. This will improve our assessment of the physical impacts and risks of increased coastal flooding and rising groundwater levels.”

In addition to the four successfully funded research programmes, Associate Professor Taehyun Rhee from Victoria’s Faculty of Engineering has been awarded Smart Ideas funding worth $1 million.

This three-year project will examine how to capture real-world lighting and reflections in augmented and mixed reality applications.

“Generating realistic representations of the world is essential for the visual effects industry to seamlessly blend virtual objects with real ones—but doing this accurately is very challenging,” says Associate Professor Rhee.

“We propose a novel method of automatically producing real-world lighting using what is called image-space analysis. Our project will ensure far more realistic visual output in immersive augmented and mixed reality and will vastly improve the visual quality for interactive applications including computer games, virtual simulation and training.”

ictoria’s performance in this year’s Endeavour Fund represents 12 percent of the total $248 million awarded to 68 projects from 17 universities, research institutes and other organisations.

“This is a stunning result for Victoria and testament to the quality of our science and technology at New Zealand’s number one-ranked university for research excellence,” says Professor Mike Wilson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Science.

Professor Kate McGrath, Vice-Provost (Research), says the result reflects the exceptional leadership of Victoria's researchers in the scholarly community and beyond.

“Our researchers are utilising an expanding base of fundamental science and engineering to create valuable solutions to global problems and to boost high-value manufacturing in New Zealand.”

| A VictoriaUnuversity release  ||  September 13,  2017   |||

Sparkle Coin has introduced its eponymous cryptocurrency, the first of its kind backed by diamonds.

The launch is the initial step toward the company’s goal of creating more efficient global economic growth to promote societal advancement by developing a platform that brings cryptocurrencies into the mainstream business and consumer markets.

Sparkle Coin is a hybrid cryptocurrency possessing the best qualities of both POW (Proof of work) and POS (Proof of stake), providing rapid adoption through mining of Sparkle Coin as well as long-term sustainability through minting.

Founded by business and technology veterans, Sparkle Coin is designed to be a part of a new economic ecosphere, built on a foundation of proven business fundamentals essential for real-world transactions.

“Cryptocurrencies were always envisioned to revolutionise global financial markets and the way consumers and businesses transact,” says Victor Wong, Sparkle Coin founder and CEO.

“Sparkle Coin bridges the gap between cryptocurrencies and traditional business by developing an economic ecosphere comprised of an asset-backed cryptocurrency, transacted through a powerful currency exchange, with an outward facing cryptocurrency payment gateway allowing virtually all merchants to accept cryptocurrency though an online shopping mall or directly on their own websites.”

After the initial coin release (ICO), Sparkle Coins can be transacted on VCoin Exchange, an advanced currency exchange that allows for trading with other cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies.

VCoin Exchange also provides software and payment gateways for virtually any merchant to accept Sparkle Coin and other cryptocurrencies as payment for products and services.

Online shoppers can use their Sparkle Coins as well as other cryptocurrencies to purchase products directly from their favourite stores including Amazon, Walmart, Target, Toys R Us, Bed Bath & Beyond, Staples and more via VCoinMall.com, a front-end order management and payment processing service.

Together, Sparkle Coin, VCoin Exchange and VCoinMall.com make up a unique economic ecosphere that connects the latest blockchain technologies with existing business platforms and networks to drive adoption of cryptocurrencies for real business transactions.

“Cryptocurrencies have struggled in the past to be widely adopted because the technologies were still being developed and the necessary infrastructure was not in place yet,” says David Chen, Sparkle Coin financial strategy vice president.

“Sparkle Coin represents the second generation of cryptocurrencies that will push through the barriers because it’s fully funded, asset-backed and easy to integrate with existing payment infrastructure.”

Sparkle Coin’s hybrid POW and POS algorithm is the latest technology for cryptocurrency, providing a rapid ramp up of miners and subsequently processing power for the network to create extremely powerful encryption and security, and accelerated transaction processing.

Sparkle Coin is the only company in the blockchain and cryptocurrency world to incorporate a fund set aside for the operation of the company for 100 years.

In addition, the public will be able to mine for approximately 1,000 Sparkle Coins a day for the same 100-year period to further increase the size and stability of the network. This approach, along with minting, creates stability, longevity and managed growth.

At launch, each Sparkle Coin is backed by US$5 worth of Gemological Institute of America (GIA) certified diamonds, procured through established diamond wholesalers, which can be immediately redeemed the day after the Sparkle Coin ICO in increments of US$500.

By backing Sparkle Coin with diamonds, which have been shown to steadily increase in value over time more than other assets such as gold, early adopters have a safety net for their participation in this new economic ecosphere.

When the price of Sparkle Coin reaches US$25 per coin, there will no longer be any need to back the coins with diamonds as the worth generated by the economy built around Sparkle Coin will have proven itself, thereby providing Sparkle Coin with its own intrinsic value five times greater than the initial price.

The Sparkle Coin ICO will occur at TechCrunch’s Disrupt in San Francisco on September 20 at 1pm PDT. 

| A BizEdge release  ||  September 13,  2017   |||

International payments provider Veem has announced an integration with New Zealand cloud-based accounting software Xero.

The integration will enable Xero users and accounting professionals to automatically sync vendor bills from Xero into Veem to streamline international payments, save time and money, and limit human errors.

With the Veem integration, Xero users can seamlessly pay international bills through the Xero platform.

When a user enters a bill in Xero, the bill automatically can be paid through Veem’s global payment platform.

The Veem platform supports global payments in US Dollars as well as multiple currencies to over 60 countries.

Users are able to see exchange rates as well as the currency related to the payments.

Veem is built on multi-rail routing tech and powered by blockchain technology.

Additional automation ensures that Veem payment IDs are automatically added to Xero bank reconciliation reports.

The Veem platform is an essential tool for small and medium businesses paying international vendors.

“Connecting Veem with Xero simplifies international payments even further by eliminating double entries and simplifying reconciliation,” comments Mark A. Gilbert, MBS Accounting Technology & Advisory president and CEO.Veem Helping Automate Accounting

The Veem global payments platform now allows financial professionals to bypass the cumbersome bank-to-bank international wire transfer process and send global payments through a simple interface in a few clicks, instead of hours.

Through the Veem - Xero integration, Xero customers now have access to simple, more automated international wire transfers.

“We’re excited about the additional functionality the Veem integration brings to our customers,” says Sid Maestre, Xero developer evangelism head.

“Global platforms like Xero and Veem have a massive opportunity to eliminate the headaches small business owners face doing trade across borders, in turn helping their businesses thrive.”The Veem-Xero Impact on Global Trade

Both Veem and Xero serve small to medium-sized business, which in the US account for ninety-four percent of global trade by volume.

Both Veem and Xero have large global customer bases, who send and receive payments to and from customers and suppliers around the world regularly.

"Veem is the global bridge that brings businesses, their customers, and suppliers closer together. We’re here to support the network of small businesses that power the global economy," says Marwan Forzley, Veem CEO and founder.

Veem is a next generation platform for business-to-business payments.

Veem enables businesses to send and receive payments in local currency with a few simple steps using multi-rail technology across several global networks.

According to their website, Veem avoids intermediary bank networks, using blockchain technology to transport payments.

And because it only touches payments once, it only needs to charge once.

Fewer touches mean less fees and faster payments.

Founded by a team of industry veterans with over 100 years of combined experience in payments, payment processing and banking IT infrastructure management, Veem aims to change the financial payment system through innovation.

The company wants to change the legacy financial payment system through innovation and improve the costly and outdated payments industry by building a new user focused financial ecosystem that services businesses globally. | A Bizedge release  ||  September 13,  2017   |||

IPWEA is the professional organisation providing member services and advocacy for those involved in and delivering public works and engineering service in Australia and New Zealand.

Previously known as the Institute of Municipal Engineering Australia (IMEA), the organisation is expanding its traditional local government engineering focus to the broader public works and thereby covering all tiers of government as well as the private sector, where we have over 30% of our membership. Almost all of Australia and New Zealand's professional consultancy firms which specialise in public sector infrastructure including roads, water, power, rail, ports and airports - are members of IPWEA. Our private sector members bring thought leadership, innovation and a commercial focus to IPWEA's industry leadership.

The evolvement of IPWEA maintains the traditional expertise of local government engineering but by broadening the base of expertise and experience, adds a new dimension to public works professionalism in Australia and New Zealand.

| An IPWEA release  ||  September 10,  2017   |||

Building inspection pass rates are improving, but the substitution of inferior building products is still blighting the construction industry writes Alexia Russell for Newsroom

Cheap, inferior alternatives being used in housing projects as substitutes for code-compliant products are the number one bugbear of Auckland Council's inspectors. The inspectors say they are picking up most of the problems, but the work required to remedy such situations is holding up the city's much needed home-building programme. Tradesmen, on the other hand, believe a lot is being missed and they're sick of seeing products that have potentially disastrous repercussions further down the line, entering the country.

A highly successful recruiting drive in Canada by the council will help the situation. There are now has 12 new, fully-trained building inspectors on the job after a trip on which Auckland Council Building Control General-Manager Ian McCormick sheepishly admits selling the country as a package by showing them lots of pretty pictures.

The current building boom means the council's facing a situation where it invests heavily in staff training, only to see those people lost to desperately-needed project managing jobs in the industry.

McCormick says without a doubt the biggest problem for him at the moment is site supervision - having competent people guide and support increasingly complex builds, and engage and manage a host of subcontractors and specialists. "We are finding in the industry that too often project managers are having to run many jobs concurrently, racing from job to job," he says. "Project managers are going into jobs more complex than in the past, and in some cases are struggling."

Continue to read the full article here on Newsroom ||  11 September 2017   |||

Have you ever had a great idea and wished you could figure out how to get it to market, but you weren’t really willing to “bet the farm” on it? As someone who has been in that position on several occasions, I can share a few insights.

First, I’ve never been tempted to contact one of those firms that markets heavily about how they help novice inventors develop ideas and provide lots of support at every step of the way. I’ve generally assumed, perhaps unfairly, that they’re much more interested in the fees they’ll collect than in really helping me succeed.  This article was written by  Douglas Hoon back in March 2016 for Machine Design

Second, I’ve never sought out angel investors or venture capitalists as a way to fund the process. They provide much more mainstream approaches, but such investors will rightly expect that you will be totally focused on achieving certain agreed-upon milestones on schedule. And they will be quick to walk away if they see the opportunity fading. It’s a high-risk, high-reward, time-critical approach that makes sense if you’re already financially independent or young enough and without major family obligations that you can weather a spectacular failure and move on with your life. Or you really like to gamble.

My approach has always been to do my inventing “nights and weekends” as a complement to a regular job that pays the bills, investing my own funds on a schedule I can afford and putting in a few hours a week slowly pushing the idea. Not every idea is a success, but with this strategy it’s possible to eventually succeed financially if only one in 10 ideas sees some level of commercial success.

Like many in the Machine Design audience, I have a small basement shop and some design tools that let me tinker and pursue ideas while avoiding the expense of real-estate rental, hiring employees, and bank loans or other debt. Thus, when some of my efforts proved to be “ahead of their time,” I’ve been able to weather the long haul until the market catches up. During that time, I am able to keep the idea alive while maintaining full ownership of the IP, persisting in overcoming the obstacles that will intrude, learning more about the markets involved, and laying a solid foundation for success. That old adage that success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration is true, and you need to give yourself the opportunity to actually invest that 99% without worrying about investor demands or running out of money.

In the process of acquiring 10 patents and writing over a dozen additional provisional and non-provisional patents, I’ve gained a lot of insights that you may find useful.

• If you work for a company, especially one involved in design, manufacturing, or consulting, there is a strong possibility you were required to sign an agreement that assigns the rights to any invention you conceive to your employer. Sometimes this provision extends for patent filings that occur 90 days or more from the date you leave the company. So before you do anything, talk to your boss or someone in your HR department to find out if you can carve out some type of exception to that policy. Companies are often willing to let you individually patent ideas that lie outside their competitive area of interest. If you can’t do that, and you’re unwilling to launch your own business, there is little reason to pursue this strategy.

• Your only protection as the inventor of a product is a patent. And the only circumstance under which most potential customers/acquirers/licensees of your idea will even talk to you is if you have at least applied for a patent. They don’t want to be embroiled in any charges that they’ve stolen your idea. A patent application, with its definitive time stamp, sets clear boundaries on who owns what.

• Patent lawyers are really expensive. Until you’re sure you have something likely to provide a return on what could be a substantial investment, figure out how to use the many tools available on U.S. Patent Office’s website www.USPTO.gov. It’s especially important that you learn how to use their advanced search tools for patents and published applications.

• Our patent system is based on the “first to file” principle. Fortunately, you can file a provisional patent application on your own, without help other than reading the guidelines on the USPTO website, as soon as the idea crystalizes in your mind. The cost for a first-time inventor filing under “micro entity” status is only $65. If you don’t qualify for that rate, the fee for a “small entity” is $130.

Provisional patent applications are good for one year. That time window lets you explore an idea more fully with reduced risk that it will be stolen. This exploration should include your own efforts to determine whether the idea is truly novel or so close to someone else’s patent that it is not worth pursuing. It should also include reaching out to potential customers/acquirers to determine whether there is any significant level of interest, i.e., do you have a product idea people will actually pay for? And finally, this one-year window gives you an opportunity to create a prototype, even a crude representation, to determine whether the idea will actually work. For this latter goal, I’ve found the 3D printer on my home desktop to be priceless.

• Submitting a provisional patent requires that you be able to adequately document/describe your idea in both words and figures. If you’re not a good writer, get help from friends or family. And think carefully about all the different ways your idea’s general functional characteristics might be realized. Your provisional patent not only registers the priority date for your idea claims, it also limits what you can later claim (without losing your priority date) in a subsequent non-provisional patent application.

The drawing portion of the application can be made much easier if you can create a range of drawing views from one of the available drawing software packages–preferably a solids modeling program. If you know how to use one of these programs, great. And if your employer will let you use company software for a personal project like this, it can be a big cost saver. However, should you need to acquire your own design software, there are several alternatives worth looking at. SolidWorks is a superb choice for small inventors, but it costs about $5,000 for the initial license and has substantial annual subscription fees. Other, more recent 3D solids programs, are less expensive. AutoDesk’s Fusion 360 and OnShape are two that come to mind. There is actually a version of OnShape you can get for free with the only limitation that your cloud-based file storage cannot exceed 5 GB. Patent drawings at the provisional level don’t necessarily need to conform to any particular format, but the USPTO publishes a definitive drawing format guide you should get in the habit of using.

• After you decide your idea is worth pursuing beyond the provisional patent level, legal protection starts to become more expensive. If there is a chance your idea will have broad appeal, especially on an international level, the investment in a patent attorney is certainly warranted. If, however, you determine there is a small market, but one worth pursuing for a small business, maybe something you could do almost at a hobby level for the enjoyment and small additional income it could afford, then you might think about prosecuting the non-provisional patent yourself. The USPTO lets individual inventors file pro se. I’ve done it once under just this set of financial considerations. The process is still underway, so I have limited experience to describe the plusses and minuses.

• One strategy I’ve used on several occasions is to solicit help in the patenting process from a larger firm interested in licensing the rights to the invention. Under these terms, they typically fund the out-of-pocket expenses for all legal fees. Inventors are generally expected to contribute their time to support development of the required patent specification and drawings with no compensation other than for direct expenses.

A natural extension of this strategy is to also solicit help from the licensing firm to defend the patent once it issues. This is potentially a huge factor in your overall business strategy because the value of a patent is only as good as your ability to defend it against potential infringers. As an individual pitted against a multinational corporation, you would have almost no chance of enforcing your rights. With the help of a larger firm, the odds go up substantially. Most agreement language around this type of provision will give the licensing firm “the right, but not the obligation” to defend the idea. Typically any damages won in a patent trial go to whoever funded the suit, and in the case it would be the licensing firm and not to you. That’s okay because your interest is in protecting the royalty stream from the license and if that continues, you win too.

I find the whole process of invention, design, and marketing of ideas to be fun and a great sideline to my normal work life. As hobbies go, it’s one of the few with the potential to actually supplement your income rather than be a steady economic drain. Like every hobby, it gets easier as you develop skills and more experience. It’s also a great way to keep my mind active and something I hope to do well into what would otherwise be a quiet retirement.

|  A Machine Design release  ||  March 3,  2016   |||

Please note that requirements around the patent system referred to in this article are based on US requirements.  For requirements in New Zealand you should visit the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand.