ALISTAIR HAMILTON
European Patent, Trade Mark and Design Attorney

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

COMMENT

Use of the UK Patent Office fast track patent grant procedure

For many years, the length of time taken to get a granted patent was a common source of complaint.  This need no longer be the case, in the UK at least.

The UK Patent Office offers a fast track procedure that can result in grant of a patent in as little as six months.  All that need be done is to request an official search and examination when an application is filed, rather than taking advantage of the possibility paying the search and examination fees later.

The Patent Office will issue a combined search and examination report as soon as practicable.  This normally happens within two to three weeks, but it is dependent upon the workload within the office.  Once a reply is filed to the report (if any is required) then the application will be re-examined normally within a matter of days.

All patent applications must be published, and grant of a patent cannot take place until at least three months has elapsed after publication.  The Patent Office will always publish an application about 18 months after it has been filed, but the applicant can request publication at any time before then to trigger early grant.  This is important because there is plenty of time to be sure that the examiner will agree to grant the application before it is committed for publication.  In the field of computer software, where many applications push the limits of patentability, this gives the applicant the opportunity to withdraw an unsuccessful application before publication in order that its contents are kept confidential.

The total start-to-finish cost of a patent is not affected by adopting the fast track procedure.  It does bring almost all the costs to the start of the procedure, rather than spreading them out over several years.

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