The Administrative Council of the EPO has decided to abolish the “10-day rule” from 1 November, 2023.

At present, communications from the EPO are deemed to be delivered to the recipient ten days after the date of mailing – effectively providing an additional ten days to respond to EPO communications. The rule was intended to protect parties from delays in the postal service, however, this rule is deemed no longer necessary now the EPO has gradually replaced physical documents with electronic communications.

From 1 November, communications from the EPO will be deemed delivered on the date stated on the communication, and the helpful 10-day window past the deadline for responding to those communications will be lost.

For more information – click here

The UKIPO has signed an agreement with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to add 3 million UK Trade Marks to the WIPO’s Global Brands Database.

WIPO provides a free online database of global brands. It is a very useful tool for tracking brands in global commerce.

Full story available here

The UK IPO have published a report indicating that over a third of UK industries have been found to be “IP intensive”. The research into the report was carried out by the Economics Evidence and Research Team, which assesses the contribution that industries make to the UK economy, employment, output and exported goods.

The full report can be found here

The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced it will be increasing official fees by approximately 2.5% from 1 April 2022 – two years since its last fee increase in April 2020. Full details of the increases are available via the EPO website.

For more information about the fee increases and how they may affect your European patent portfolio, and to discuss your options in filing early to save costs, please do not hesitate to contact us.

The Intellectual Property Office has an online resource to assist people in finding the Goods and/or Services that would be acceptable as part of a UK Trade Mark Application. The IPO advises that, when applying to register a Trade Mark, you must use the classification system to specify the Goods and/or Services you wish to protect.

The service, which can be found on the website of The IPO, recommends that one considers:

what people pay you for;

what goods you sell, or are intending to sell in the future, under the Mark; or

what services your offer, or intend to offer, under the Mark.

Further help can be found here – https://www.search-uk-trade-mark-classes.service.gov.uk/searchclasses