The Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom (often referred to as the UK IPO) is, since 2 April 2007, the operating name of The Patent Office. It is the official government body responsible for
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
rights in the UK and is an executive agency of the
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is a department of His Majesty's Government. The department was formed during a machinery of government change on 14 July 2016, following Theresa May's appointment as Prime ...
(BEIS).
Responsibilities
The IPO has direct administrative responsibility for examining and issuing or rejecting patents, and maintaining registers of
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
including
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
s,
designs
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
and
trade mark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others. ...
s in the UK. As in most countries, there is no statutory register of
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
and the IPO does not conduct any direct administration in copyright matters.
The IPO is led by the Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, who is also Registrar of Trade Marks, Registrar of Designs and Chief Executive of the IPO. Since 1 May 2017, the Comptroller has been Tim Moss, following the resignation of John Alty who had been Comptroller General since 2010. The Comptroller General before Alty was
Ian Fletcher, who had taken over after the retirement of
Ron Marchant on 30 March 2007.
[Patent Office press release](_blank)
, 20 March 2007 The previous Comptroller General was
Alison Brimelow
Alison Jane Brimelow CBE (born 1949European Patent Office web site''Alison Brimelow's CV'' Consulted on 2 July 2007. ) is a British civil servant and former chief executive and Comptroller General of the UK Patent Office, now known as the Intell ...
(who was afterwards
President of the European Patent Office
The European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the two organs of the European Patent Organisation (EPOrg), the other being the Administrative Council. The EPO acts as executive body for the organisation ).
Substantive duties
The existence of the Patent Office and the post of Comptroller General are required by the Patents and Designs Act 1907 (though most of the remainder of this Act has been repealed), but the substantive duties of the IPO are set out in other legislation, including:
* The
Registered Designs Act 1949
The Registered Designs, Act, 1949 (12, 13 and 14 Geo. 6 c. 88) is an act in the United Kingdom concerning copyright and related rights, industrial designs, patents, protection of undisclosed information. The purpose of the act was to consolidate ...
* The Patents Act 1977
* The
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988c 48, also known as the CDPA, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received Royal Assent on 15 November 1988. It reformulates almost completely the statutory basis of copyright law ( ...
* The
Trade Marks Act 1994
The Trade Marks Act 1994 is the law governing trade marks within the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man. It implements EU Directive No. 89/104/EEC (The Trade Marks Directive) which forms the framework for the trade mark laws of all EU member ...
Each of these Acts of Parliament has been extensively amended since it was first passed.
Manual of Patent Practice
The Manual of Patent Practice sets out the relevant patent law and the operational practice of the Intellectual Property Office in relation to patents.
History
![The former Patent Office building, Southampton Buildings, WC2 - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/The_former_Patent_Office_building%2C_Southampton_Buildings%2C_WC2_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1271755.jpg)
The forerunner of the Patent Office, the Office of the Commissioners for Patents, was established by the Patent Law Amendment Act 1852 and opened on 1 October that year. While this is claimed as the date the modern Intellectual Property Office was created it was in fact created later, along with the office of the comptroller under the Patents, Designs and Trade Marks Act 1883 (s 82).
There had been a Patent Bill Office, under the control of the
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
, which was part of the old patent system. It had been located in
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...
.
Significantly, the process of applying for a patent was extremely complicated and largely set up to ensure fees were paid to various officials (patent fees formed a significant part of the stipend of the Attorney and
Solicitor General). The Patent Law Amendment Act 1852 brought the process of patent grant into a single office serving the whole of the United Kingdom (where previously a petitioner had had to apply and pay fees to several offices, and to obtain separate patents for each of the UK's constituent nations).
Initially, people applying for a patent often used to submit a detailed model of their submission; these were retained and the collection became known as the Patent Museum (opened to the public in 1863 in
South Kensington
South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...
, it went on to become a core collection of the new
Science Museum
A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...
there).
Location
From its early days, the Patent Office was based in the
Chancery Lane
Chancery Lane is a one-way street situated in the ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. It has formed the western boundary of the City since 1994, having previously been divided between the City of Westminster and the London Boro ...
area of London, where it eventually spread to fill the area between Furnival Street and Southampton Buildings. The principal entrance was at 25 Southampton Buildings, where a purpose-built headquarters was constructed in 1899–1902 (architect: Sir
John Taylor). The principal interior space was the Library, a "harsh but spectacular space 140ft long, lit from skylights and a
clerestory
In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both.
Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...
, with two tiers of steel-framed, fireproofed galleries on cast iron
Corinthian columns
The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order w ...
".
Designed to allow members of the public to consult patent records, it also contained a very extensive collection of technical and scientific publications, which in 1967 was transferred to the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
.
In 1991, having outgrown its original premises, the Patent Office moved to
Newport,
South East Wales
South East Wales is a loosely defined region of Wales generally corresponding to the preserved counties of Mid Glamorgan, South Glamorgan and Gwent. Highly urbanised, it includes the cities of Cardiff and Newport as well as large towns in th ...
, where the IPO headquarters remains to this day. A small branch office in London has been maintained for the benefit of the large professional community based there and for communication with central government.
See also
*
Copyright law of the United Kingdom
Under the law of United Kingdom, a copyright is an intangible property right subsisting in certain qualifying subject-matter. Copyright law is governed by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (the 1988 Act), as amended from time to time. A ...
*
Departments of the United Kingdom Government
The Government of the United Kingdom is divided up into departments. These, according to the government, are responsible for putting government policy into practice. There are currently 23 ministerial departments, 20 non-ministerial departments ...
*
Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys
The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) is the British professional body of patent attorneys.
History
The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) was founded in 1882 as the ''Chartered Institute of Patent Agents'' and incorpor ...
(CIPA)
*
Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (ITMA)
*
Intellectual Property Regulation Board
The Intellectual Property Regulation Board (IPReg) is a body regulating the patent attorney and trademark attorney professions in the United Kingdom (UK). It was set up by the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) and the Institute of Tr ...
(IPReg)
*
IP Federation (formerly the "Trade Marks, Patents and Designs Federation" or TMPDF)
*
Patents County Court
The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC; previously the Patents County Court or PCC) in London is an alternative venue to the High Court for bringing legal actions involving intellectual property matters such as patents, registered desi ...
(PCC)
*
Patent office
*
Software patents under United Kingdom patent law
*
Company Names Tribunal
The Company Names Tribunal was created on 1 October 2008 in the United Kingdom and is a direct result of the coming into force of Section 69 of the Companies Act 2006. The Company Names Tribunal is administered by the UK Intellectual Property Off ...
*
Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit
The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) is a unit of the City of London Police, the national lead force for fraud. It was established in 2013 with the responsibility to investigate and deter serious and organised intellectual property c ...
(PIPCU) – Funded by the Intellectual Property Office
References
External links
*
UK Patents Act 1977 and Rules
{{authority control
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Executive agencies of the United Kingdom government
Trading funds of the United Kingdom government
Intellectual Property Office, UK
Patent offices
Science and technology in the United Kingdom
Intellectual Property Office, UK
Intellectual Property Office, UK
Intellectual property organizations
Government-owned companies of the United Kingdom