Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2017 submitted by UK Intellectual Property Office
I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
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Applications for national UK patents remained fairly static between 2016 and 2017, with 22,068 applications in 2016 and 22,072 in 2017. Of these, applications from UK residents decreased from 63% of applications in 2016 to 60% in 2017. The number of Patents granted increased from 5602 in 2016 to 6311 in 2017 (+13%).
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Our website www.ipo.gov.uk moved in October 2014 to a new Government website GOV.UK and the new web address is now:
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Statistics related to patents at the Intellectual Property Office can be accessed through the annual reports, annual reviews and facts and figures at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics?departments%5B%5D=intellectual-property-office
Information on filing, including Patents application guide and other materials, is available from the following web page:
https://www.gov.uk/patent-your-invention
The procedure after filing, including publication, examination and grant is described at:
https://www.gov.uk/patent-your-invention
Information regarding dispute resolution, including hearings, mediation and opinions may be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/intellectual-property-mediation
https://www.gov.uk/opinions-resolving-patent-disputes
Results of past patent decisions are available at:
https://www.ipo.gov.uk/p-challenge-decision-results.htm
Information on how applicants may appeal is provided at:
https://www.gov.uk/patent-disputes-resolution-hearings
Other business procedures such as the Patents Act, finding patents, how we classify and renewals are covered by web pages accessible from the main Patents portal:
https://www.gov.uk/topic/intellectual-property/patents
A link to the EPO search dataset Espacenet is provided from the online patent services portal:
https://www.gov.uk/search-for-patent
The UK patent register may be searched by publication or application number at:
https://www.ipo.gov.uk/p-ipsum.htm
The UK patent register may also be searched by publication date at:
https://www.ipo.gov.uk/p-find-publication.htm
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs
Information on filing, including Patents application guide and other materials, is available from the following web page: https://www.gov.uk/topic/intellectual-property/patents
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
The UK patent register and some of the documents from may be searched by publication or application number at: https://www.ipo.gov.uk/p-ipsum.htm
Classification1, preclassification2 (if applicable), reclassification3 activities; classification systems used (e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC)); matters concerning indexing of patent information
All UK patent applications are classified in the IPC. In 2005 the IPO started classifying all UK patent applications in ECLA, which was replaced by CPC classification in October 2013. Pre-classification (i.e. allocation of applications to examining groups) is done manually at subclass level using the CPC. Clusters of CPC subclasses provide the basis for the structure of examining divisions and groups. The office does not reclassify documentation.
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The IPO is an active participant in the work of the IPC Union Committee of Experts and the IPC revision working group, and meets regularly with other participating offices at WIPO to discuss ongoing revision of the IPC.
III. SOURCES OF PATENT INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Main types of publications of the Office (patent applications, full text, first pages, abstracts, bibliographic data, granted patents, etc.), medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)
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These are prepared in-house in a 5 week publication cycle using a bespoke IT system linked to PDAX (the IPO’s electronic case management system). The front page is compiled by downloading bibliographic data (XML format) from the corporate database COPS and is married with the abstract text from our internal examiner database (PROSE). The abstract drawing is extracted from PDAX and merged to finalise the front page. The finished front page is added to the rest of the specification pages from PDAX and reproduced in a single PDF image. The PDF image is then loaded onto the IPO’s publication server on our external website for customer download. The IPO no longer publish “A” documents in paper format, the official publication means being electronic (please see the following link):
https://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/patent/p-os/p-find/p-find-publication.htm
The PDF A documents are then transferred via Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) to the EPO. This is done on a weekly basis and includes a separate ST.36 XML file for the bibliographical and full text abstract data.
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These are prepared in-house in a 5 week publication cycle using a bespoke IT system linked to PDAX (the IPO’s electronic case management system). The front page is compiled by downloading bibliographic data (XML format) from the corporate database COPS and merged with the rest of the specification pages from PDAX and reproduced in a single PDF image. The PDF image is then loaded onto the IPO’s publication server on our external website for customer download. The
The IPO no longer publishes “B” documents in paper format; the official publication means being electronic (see the following link): https://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/patent/p-os/p-find/p-find-publication.htm).
The PDF B documents are then transferred via Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) to the EPO. This is done on a weekly basis and includes a separate ST.36 XML file for the bibliographical data.
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These are prepared in-house in a 2 week publication cycle using a bespoke IT system linked to PDAX (the IPO’s electronic case management system). The front page is compiled by downloading bibliographic data (XML format) from the corporate database COPS and merged with the rest of the specification pages from PDAX and reproduced in a single PDF image. The PDF image is then loaded onto the IPO’s publication server on our external website for customer download. The
The IPO no longer publishes “errata” documents in paper format, the official publication means being electronic, please see the following link: https://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/patent/p-os/p-find/p-find-publication.htm
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Legal status information is contained on the UK patent register and may be searched by publication or application number at: https://www.ipo.gov.uk/p-ipsum.htm
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Other sources
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
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Other matters
Nothing to report.
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF PATENT INFORMATION
Patent library: equipment, collection management, network of patent libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign patent libraries
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Office's initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts)
Nothing to report.
Cooperation with universities, research centers, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
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All marketing and PR is carried out within the External Communications team and we are achieving great coverage particularly on our social networking platforms. We have recently launched an Instagram account with a focus on cultivating a following and specifically targeting entrepreneurs and designers: instagram.com/ipforbusiness
VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF PATENT INFORMATION
International exchange and sharing of patent information in machine-readable form, e.g., priority documents, bibliographic data, abstracts, search reports, full text information
We apply all relevant WIPO standards including ST.8 for machine-readable records and ST.36 for xml transfer of bibliographic data.
In October 2009 we launched a Patents Digital Access Service for the digital preparation and transfer of patent priority documents to WIPO. The service is free to electronic filers and will benefit both UK business and the IP community.
The new service automatically prepares digital patent priority documents and securely stores them at WIPO for future use. This service removes the financial burden on our customers who currently pay National IP Offices to prepare priority documents for filing at other IP offices. Please see the following link for further information https://www.ipo.gov.uk/pro-types/pro-patent/pro-p-os/pro-p-apply-online-pdas.htm.
It is also possible to exchange priority documents in paper and on CD provided the appropriate electronic signature is provided.
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information
Nothing further to report.
Assistance to developing countriescountries
Nothing to report.
Other activities
Nothing to report.
VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS
Nothing to report.
1. Classification is allotting one or more classification symbols (e.g., IPC symbols) to a patent application, either before or during search and examination, which symbols are then published with the patent application.Anchor f1 f1
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