United Kingdom Patent Office

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The United Kingdom Patent Office is the lead United Kingdom government agency responsible for developing and administering policy in most areas of intellectual property, under the overall aegis of the Department of Trade and Industry. (Some work on copyright policy is shared with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and plant breeders' rights are administered by the Plant Variety Rights Office, an agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs).

Policy development is carried on by the Patent Office's Intellectual Property and Innovation Directorate (IPID), including preparation of new UK legislation, intellectual property enforcement policy, and participation in international negotiations.

The Patent Office also has direct administrative responsibility for examining and issuing or rejecting patents, and maintaining registers of intellectual property including patents, designs and trademarks in the United Kingdom. In the UK, as in most countries (bar the odd exception) there is no general statutory register of copyright. Therefore, there is no direct administration required in copyright matters. Recently, the Patent Office has also been given statutory powers to offer "Patent Office Opinions" on patent validity and infringement disputes; and to offer alternative dispute resolution services.

The Patent Office is led by the Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, currently Ron Marchant, who is also registrar of trade marks, ^[1] registrar of designs^[2] and Chief Executive of the Office.

The existence of the Patent Office and the post of Comptroller are required by the Patents and Designs Act 1907 (though most of the remainder of this Act has been repealed), but the substantive duties of the Office are set out in other legislation, including:

The Registered Designs Act 1949
The Patents Act 1977
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
The Trade Marks Act 1994

All of the above legislation has been amended extensively since it was first passed.

Since 1991, the UK Patent Office has had its headquarters in Newport, South Wales, but 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.