Coming to terms (and conditions)

Dear *|FNAME|*,

We've hit the ground running in 2023! While there's still a lot of uncertainty out there in finance, property, and more, we're proud to have started another year helping people get a little more certainty with matters close to them.

So for this issue of Legalchat, we're extending a few of those ways we've been helping people to you. That includes getting business terms and conditions (or terms of trade) in order, supporting people with insurance claims (particularly following Cyclone Gabrielle and flooding), and making sure their will (desire and wish) is reflected in their will (the document). Throw in a little AI discussion and property market updates, and it's 2023 in a nutshell.

Time to tidy up those terms and conditions?

Having a good set of terms and conditions is vital for any business at any time. It helps you protect yourself and your customers, and helps build happy, easy working relationships.

But they’re especially important in times of financial pressure, such as rising inflation. Money can be tighter, and each dollar can matter even more than it would at other times.

Here’s how your terms and conditions can help your business

• Reducing risk of late payment. Late payments or defaults are always a risk for businesses. But that risk is heightened when customers or clients may be less likely to be able to meet their obligations. A set of clear terms and conditions makes it easy for everyone to understand those payment obligations, and what might happen if people don’t meet them. That makes enforcing those obligations easier, too.

• Maintaining cash flow. It’s not just your customers that might be finding it harder to make payments, and make them on-time. If your cash flow isn’t what it once was, good terms and conditions are important to help make sure you’re paid when you need and expect to be paid.

• Building trust, showing your value, and making things easier for your customers. When finances are tight, customers and clients may be increasingly selective about with whom they do business. Clear, customer-friendly terms and conditions show you care, show you’re serious about delivering what they need, and simply make it easier for them to do business with you.

• Creating certainty and setting the right expectations. When every dollar matters, there’s less tolerance for falling short of expectations. Your terms and conditions can make it clear who needs to do what, and to what standard.

• Protecting yourself. By clearly setting out your rights and obligations and any limitations of liability, you reduce the risk of any legal action later on - and give yourself the best chance at success should any arise.

Here’s how we can help you with your terms and conditions

You can create terms and conditions yourself. But the risk is that they won’t do what you need them to do. Even small errors or inefficiencies can add up to a lot of extra costs later on.

So your best bet is to come talk with someone like us. We can:

• Review your existing terms and conditions to make sure they do what you need them to do.

• Help you create new terms and conditions to suit your current business needs, and the environment in which you’re operating.

Support for those affected by Cyclone Gabrielle

Our thoughts have been with the many people affected by Cyclone Gabrielle and other recent weather events. While those of us in Canterbury were fortunate enough to avoid those direct impacts, we do have clients and others close to us in those areas. It also brought to mind the many similar housing and insurance challenges people experienced in this part of the country during and after the earthquakes.

We have supported people with insurance and EQC claims for many years, and that includes people in those places struggling right now. So if you or anyone close to you needs some support, or even just a word of advice, we’re ready to help.

Can an AI be granted a patent?

AI tools are developing rapidly, and as they do, so do questions about the ethics of their use. That’s included discussion around whether art generated by tools such as DALL-E and Midjourney are truly original, or just derivative of existing artworks. (And if that’s really any different to the way humans create new pieces of art.)

These kinds of questions aren’t just hypothetical. A recent High Court of New Zealand case had to contemplate whether an AI could be granted a patent for something it created. Or, to put it another way, whether an AI could be considered an inventor in New Zealand law.

Dr. Stephen Thaler is an American AI industry pioneer. He created an AI system called DABUS (Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience), which he included in a patent application in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and New Zealand. But he wasn’t seeking to patent DABUS. He was seeking for DABUS to be listed as the inventor of a product to be patented (a new type of food container).

He was unsuccessful in those other countries, and here, the Assistant Commissioner of Patents also decided that an AI could not be an inventor: such status was reserved for humans alone. Dr. Thaler appealed this decision.

Thaler argued that unlike the law in the United Kingdom and Australia, the relevant law in New Zealand (Patents Act 2013) was written at a time when AI tools existed and were “inventing” things. He further argued the Act did not require an inventor to be a person, and in fact removed language from previous legislation that suggested the contrary.

Palmer J disagreed. He said there was nothing in the legislative history of the 2013 Act to suggest Parliament intended to expand the definition of an inventor to include AI, and that any change in the language of that Act was only to prevent importers from qualifying as inventors. If AI were to be considered inventors, it would require a clear decision by Parliament, rather than the courts. So, unfortunately for DABUS, it could not be considered the inventor of the food container for the purposes of a patent.

That might be good news to human inventors generally. But it’s unlikely to be the last we’ll see of AI creations being involved in legal proceedings - especially in cases where AI are accused of taking more than just inspiration from human-created works.

More generally, it’s a good reminder that good ideas are valuable, and worth protecting. And if you have one of those, we’re here to help you protect it. Get in touch for advice with patents and other intellectual property needs.

The costs of dying without a will

Having an up-to-date will is important. A will gives you the power to make sure your property and assets are dealt with and distributed how you'd like, after your death.

And while it's true we probably won't need to worry too much about these things once we're gone... dying without a will can create a lot of costs and stress for those we leave behind. 

It's certainly more cost and stress than is involved in just getting a will created, or updated. The time and cost involved for that may be less than you think, particularly when you're working with people who have a lot of experience in that area - for example, us!

So this is your regular reminder: if you're one of the 50% or so of New Zealanders who don't have a will, now's a good time to change that. Let us make it easy for you, and for those close to you.

Monthly Housing Update

While nationally the outlook for the housing market is not particularly bright, it seems Christchurch has been bucking the trend, at least in a modest way. February data from CoreLogic showed a 0.4% increase in average Christchurch house prices from the previous month, making it the only main centre to see a month-on-month increase. Average prices here are also only down 1.7% year-on-year, well ahead of the next city, Hamilton, with a decrease of 8.1%.

And unlike the other main centres, who saw median prices drop in all suburbs year-on-year, nine Christchurch suburbs remained flat or saw an increase in value (with the biggest increases in Aranui, Merivale, Scarborough, Cashmere, and North New Brighton).

A more significant increase in values was seen somewhere else: the recent capital valuations by Quotable Value. These are up an average 47.3% across the city since the last valuation in 2019. Balancing the possibility of a larger sale price with the certainty of higher rates, that might see a few more people heading to the property market soon.

If you’re one of those people, or you’re weighing up buying or selling for any reason soon, our team is here to help. Get in touch early so you’ve got everything you need to make a move when the opportunity presents itself.

Thanks *|FNAME|*.

We're looking forward to what promises to be another interesting year, and are glad you're there alongside us. As always, we're only a phone call or email away if you need our support navigating the road ahead.

Regards,

Clive, Grant and the Team at Canterbury Legal