IP rights examination backlog brought to zero

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has recently cleared its patents, trade marks and designs examination backlog – cases that take longer than IPO’s agreed service standards.

The backlog in all three examination areas has been cleared to zero from queues of, 13,000 patent applications, 32,185 trade mark applications and 9,507 design applications.

In order to process the backlog, the IPO has brought about a number of initiatives – streamlining of processes, service improvements and the creation of ‘technology clusters’ to share work across a wider pool of colleagues.

The IPO have created a programme called the “One IPO Transformation programme” which sees the launch of their new patents service within 2 years. The programme is designed to bring faster services for customers and enable IPO staff to manage higher volumes, reducing the risk of future backlogs.

Full report can be found here