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 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
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 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) fee structure has changed as of 1 September 2022.
The fees are now as follows –
Transmittal Fee:
Search Fee:
Further charges and more information 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.
We our celebrating 10 years as Burrows Chambers Associates. Ten 10 years ago, Neil Chambers joined forces with Anthony Burrows (now in his 33rd year of running his own IP Firm).
Anthony and Neil are both still located at Business Centre West in Letchworth Garden City and are proud to continue serving local, national and international Clients with their Intellectual Property requirements.
We would like to thank our Clients for their continued support and loyalty, and we look forward to serving you for another 10 years and beyond!
As a way of helping celebrate, all current Clients will be added to a prize draw to win a bottle of champagne.
(information correct at time of publishing)
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
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has had temporary fee changes (fee reductions) in place since the 30th July 2020 in order to help customers during the pandemic.
The temporary fee changes provision will end on the 31st March 2021. Any actions taken on or after the 1st April 2021 will require the usual fees.
Please follow the link to find out more directly from the IPO’s website – https://www.gov.uk/government/news/temporary-fee-changes
If you have been relying on paying your Patent renewal fees late, and incurring no additional costs through the temporary fee changes, you must now pay the required renewal fees by the end of March – otherwise normal extension fees will be incurred.
As a Firm, we are always here to help our Customers and, so, if you have any queries about the above, please do not hesitate to contact us directly.
When applying to register a Trade Mark, you must use the classification system to specify the goods and/or services for which you will use or intend to use your Trade Mark.
The Intellectual Property Office has launched a new searching service which will help you search for, and classify, the goods and/or services you need to apply for to register your Trade Mark. This searching service is predominantly aimed at those individuals or businesses who will wish to apply themselves; however, it will also be of use to Firms of Attorneys too, like the tool TMClass offered by the EUIPO.
For more information please follow this link – IPO new search UK trade mark classes service now available – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
It is important to know that, as of the 1st January 2021, those wishing to protect their Trade Mark and Registered Design Rights in the United Kingdom and the EU will need to make separate provisions, and EU Trade Marks and Registered Designs now no longer protect the United Kingdom.
If you have existing EU rights which were Registrations as of the 31st December 2020, reciprocal rights have been created covering the UK, and the above affects just new rights or rights which were Applications as of the 31st December 2020.
Further, as of the 1st January 2021, proprietors outside the UK will require an Address for Service in the UK.
We are here to help you and your Clients, and welcome any queries the above may raise.
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has published a summary of the key changes to IP rights from the 1st January. Please follow this link for further information – https://www.gov.uk/government/news/intellectual-property-after-1-january-2021.