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Back in 2021 the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) began its transformation journey to modernise, digitalise and streamline its systems and services for intellectual property (IP) rights.
Viscount Camrose, Minister for AI and Intellectual Property, said:
“Intellectual Property (IP) is vital to the success of the UK economy and a powerful enabler of innovation and creativity. As the UK economy transforms to meet future needs, so too must our IP services, removing barriers to innovation and supporting UK innovators as they embrace the opportunities ahead.”
“By delivering fast, flexible, high-quality services for the future, the ‘One IPO Transformation Programme’ will help the UK Intellectual Property Office deliver its ambition to be the best IP office. I am excited to mark one year to go until the IPO’s new fully digital service for patents is launched.”
The UKIPO has always had completely separate systems for each of the different types of registered IP rights (i.e. patents, trade marks and designs). However, it is common for our clients to have several types of registered IP, and in such cases, separate systems can be less efficient. ‘One IPO’ will allow us to view registered IP rights under a single system. This new system will improve the efficiency of how we manage the UK registered rights in our client’s IP portfolios.
The fully digital system will significantly change the way we submit IP applications. According to the office, the fully digital system aims to provide faster examination through more efficient processing. We hope this new streamlined process will benefit our clients by providing more efficient examination of IP, hopefully improving the time taken for applications to grant.
The UKIPO’s data will be made available so that you can search and monitor new ideas and technology published in your field. This feature may be of particular use to you and is explained in more detail below.
With the new digital service set to launch in Spring 2024, the UKIPO has recently published details of what to expect leading up to the launch.
Below is a timeline and the details of the upcoming changes we can expect:
Changes to the service will begin in September 2023 with the launch of a new patents search service, which will provide more search options and information compared to the current search service, Ipsum.
The new patents search service will include:
Using this new search system, it will also be possible to save searches and monitor any IP you are interested in. We believe this may be a particularly useful tool for our clients to identify and exploit any new opportunities for innovation, with our support.
Trade marks and designs are expected to be added to the search service in 2025, creating one place to search all UK IP.
The first system to launch will be the patents system. A pilot of this system will run from September 2023 to Spring 2024, with a small group of users having early access to the new service.
In Spring 2024, the new digital patents service will launch for all users.
In the Autumn/Winter of 2025 to 2026, trade marks and designs will be added to the new system.
A digital hearings and tribunals service is also expected to launch by the end of 2025.
For more details on the upcoming changes, visit the UKIPO website.
If you have any questions about the new digital service transformation, please get in contact.