Legal help with an extension of time acceptance application

This service helps with the legal and procedural work involved in asking for more time during the acceptance stage of an IP matter. That includes checking where your application currently sits, confirming the deadline you are trying to extend, preparing the application itself, and identifying what supporting explanation or evidence may be useful. If IPONZ raises a standard follow-up query after filing, we can also assist with that response. Approval is still a decision for IPONZ, so the service is about putting the request forward properly rather than promising a result.

You will usually need to provide details of the underlying IP application, the deadline that is approaching or has been missed, and the reason extra time is being requested. In many matters, supporting documents such as correspondence, internal records, or a timeline of events can also be relevant. The stronger the factual explanation, the easier it is to assess what should go into the application. Once we review your situation, we can tell you what information is most useful and whether any gaps should be addressed before filing.

Timing depends on two moving parts: how quickly the application material can be assembled, and how long IPONZ takes to deal with the request once lodged. In practice, delays often happen because the reasons for the extension are not set out clearly or supporting documents are missing. It is usually better to raise the issue early rather than wait until the last moment, especially where the acceptance deadline is close. After filing, IPONZ may process the request directly or come back with questions that need a further response.

The key third-party factor is IPONZ itself. IPONZ decides whether the request is accepted and may ask for further information before doing so. That means the overall timeline and outcome are not fully within your control. In some matters, third-party evidence or correspondence may also be relevant if the reason for delay involves another adviser, supplier or filing step. Our role is to prepare the application and supporting material described on this page, but regulator decisions and external responses sit outside Sprintlaw's control.

A template may tell you where to put basic information, but it will not assess whether your explanation matches the procedural history of the IP matter or whether the supporting material is likely to answer the real issue. Extension requests are often won or lost on detail, sequence and evidence rather than the label of the form itself. Legal help is useful where you want the request framed around the actual deadline, the acceptance context and the documents available, rather than submitting a generic explanation and hoping it is enough.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Extension Of Time Acceptance Application service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.