Corporate report

IP for a creative and innovative UK Strategy 2024 to 2027

Published 2 May 2024

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The government aims to cement the UK’s place as a global leader in science and technology and have the best creative industries in the world. Overarching objectives include to:

• back UK science, technology and innovation and boost investment in the UK’s most exciting technologies and sectors of the future, to grow the economy and create highly-paid jobs;
• improve lives by championing responsible innovation in the digital economy and public services;
• support the UK’s cultural and creative industries to continue to be amongst the best in the world

Intellectual Property (IP) is vital to each of these objectives. As an Executive Agency of the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is responsible for the IP system. The IPO is tasked with the promotion and administration of the IP system, and the provision and dissemination of information about IP. Our activities support a wide policy ecosystem; from helping Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) achieve their potential to empowering consumers to make informed choices in competitive markets.

Our mission is to help people grow the UK economy by providing an IP system that encourages investment in creativity and innovation.

Our mission will be challenging, but IP has such a wide impact on all of our lives that we are determined to be innovative, forward-looking, and to succeed.

Innovation and a changing world

We live in a fast-paced world where it feels like the pace of innovation is accelerating. This brings both risk and opportunity for our customers, the IP system internationally and for us as an organisation. Advances such as AI are having effects across technology, art and our culture. Products are developing faster and are being shared, enjoyed and branded in innovative ways. The challenge of climate change requires new approaches, new technology and new investment.

All this is a challenge to a system that has been supporting technology, creativity, art, and the marketing of these, for centuries.

Intellectual Property – enhancing lives

IP touches everything that makes life more enjoyable, easier, and more prosperous, helping to safeguard our health and wellbeing. Great ideas are a source of progress. IP Rights give creators, inventors, and investors the confidence to turn their ideas into reality, realise new opportunities and adapt to challenges. They also enable consumers to buy with confidence. By helping new ideas and discoveries to market, an effective IP system advances the health, wellbeing and prosperity of society, turning world-leading science and ideas into solutions for the public good. This brings medicines that protect us, art that enhances our culture and products that enrich and improve our lives.

Understanding IP, and applying that knowledge to make informed decisions, is a critical enabler, especially for SMEs, start-ups and scale-ups. We want the creators, innovators and entrepreneurs of today and tomorrow to understand how IP supports innovation, creativity and business growth and to use that understanding to maximise the benefits of IP.

IP protection is positively associated with various indicators of business success. Recent evidence has shown that firms that register Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) achieve 20% higher revenue per employee^{[footnote 1]}, and up to 10 times higher likelihood of access to early-stage growth finance^{[footnote 2]}, than their counterparts without IPR portfolios. We know that UK researchers who register IPRs frequently go on to commercialise their IP through spinouts, licensing deals, and private sector collaboration^{[footnote 3]}.

An innovative Intellectual Property Office

The IPO’s journey dates back more than 170 years, a rich history that strengthens our enduring commitment to foster investment in innovation and creativity within the United Kingdom.

IP also has a long history of international agreements. There are 193 parties to the World Intellectual Property Organization Convention but not every country sees IP in the same way. As different countries’ economies develop and change, part of our role remains to communicate and show others the value of IP.  

The UK is consistently rated as having one of the very best IP systems in the world^{[footnote 4]}. UK business invests more than £130 billion a year in knowledge assets. IP rights protect around £85 billion^{[footnote 5]} of this, and highly innovative industries account for around a quarter^{[footnote 6]} of the UK’s economic output. The UK’s IP-rich technology sector is valued at over $1 trillion^{[footnote 7]}, behind only China and the US, and first in Europe by some distance.

Demand for our services continues to increase.

Between the years 2017 and 2022:

• the number of patents granted increased by more than 67% (6,311 in 2017 and 10,578 in 2022)

• trade mark registrations increased by more than 131% (70,362 in 2017 and 163,104 in 2022)

• design registrations increased by more than 307% (17,195 in 2017 and 70,098 in 2022)

Source:

Facts and figures: patents, trade marks, designs and hearings: 2022

We have maintained excellent levels of customer service in the face of this demand, keeping customer satisfaction above 85%. It is a core strength which is fundamental to the UK IP system. To build on this strength, the IPO will need to continue to innovate and build resilience in these fast changing and complex times.

Our One IPO Transformation Programme is the most challenging and ambitious endeavour in our history. It underscores our commitment to invest in providing a customer experience which responds to current and future needs. It is not just an operational upgrade but a culture change as we move to becoming a more innovative, dynamic, and responsive organisation.

Our Strategy

We are operating in a complex and challenging environment. If we are to succeed in our mission, we must focus on where we can achieve the greatest impact – boosting investment and innovation in technologies and sectors in line with the government’s ambition. And where we can, we must help others to grow the economy through IP. Our purpose as an organisation is set out in our Framework Document^{[footnote 8]}. Our strategy is what shapes and harnesses our energies to enhance what we do; it helps us set our priorities so we can use our resources to greatest effect. Our contribution to growing the UK economy by providing an IP system that encourages investment in creativity and innovation will be built on three pillars.

For the coming years the pillars of our strategy are:

Our services: High-quality, efficient and accessible;

Our policy:  Supporting innovation and the economy;

Delivered by:

Our organisation: High-performing, with skilled people connected by shared purpose.

Our goals that flow from these pillars are set out below and to succeed in our mission, we also require sound financial, resource and environmental management. The activities we invest in must provide the highest impact and value for money. A specific focus on enabling innovative SMEs to use IP to prosper and grow will boost innovation across the UK economy. Approaches that contribute to net zero outcomes and innovation will be pivotal to our own operations, and our approach to new policy development.

But above all, our people are at the heart of what we do and empowering them to succeed together remains our priority.

Pillar: Our services

High-quality, efficient and accessible

Providing high-quality, timely and cost-effective IP registration services will continue to be core to how the IPO backs science, creativity and innovation to help grow the economy. We want to improve our customers’ experience even further by providing more efficient, timely and accessible services, and accurate data. Our services are undergoing a transformation that will make working with IP easier for everyone. The administrative step of registering IP should be as smooth as possible. We will offer fast and efficient ways to change ownership details and pay fees. Certainty on the decisions about rights made by the organisation benefits owners of rights, and also benefits their competitors and potential users of those rights. Our examination and tribunal decisions will be legally robust and trusted. Using, understanding ownership or enforcing IP should be simple and effective.

The public, researchers and entrepreneurs and many others need to be able to access our data easily and reliably. And everyone needs a sufficient understanding of IP for the full investment and growth benefits to be realised.

In the coming years, our strategic goals in this area are to:

Transform and then iterate the way we deliver our services to provide high-quality, timely, forward looking IP protection that meets customer need.

We will introduce a new, integrated system for all registered IP rights (patents, trade marks and designs) to allow creators, innovators and businesses to deal seamlessly with all their IP rights in one place.

Our new system, and the changes to the way we provide our services, will increase efficiency and be based on identified customer needs, not merely digitising our existing processes. Our services will use modern infrastructure to simplify future changes – enabling us to adapt and innovate at pace in response to customers and to harness the benefits of emerging technologies.

We will support customers to manage their rights quickly and easily by increasing automation and self-service options through a new customer account. The customer account will allow for quicker and easier communication, creating opportunities to improve our services further and allow real-time communication and collaboration. Our One IPO Transformation programme will reduce duplication and the need for manual processes, saving time and money for our customers and the IPO.

Realise the potential of our data to maximise the value of IP to society and support economic growth.

Through our One IPO Transformation we will provide new tools to search and analyse IP that will enable anyone to access our data in one place, allowing them to gain insight from our data and identify and exploit opportunities for innovation to help them grow their businesses. 

Our ambition is to grow our capability in data sharing, accessibility and visualisation within the UK IPO, wider government, other IPO’s, law enforcement and to the public. To do this, we must first validate the quality of our data, ensuring it is accurate, accessible, correctly structured, managed and stored in the right places, to provide the required data security and cohesion that makes our data an asset.

Improving the quality of our data will allow us to use it to drive better-informed decisions on our internal activities and the products and services we provide.

Provide the right tools and support that inspire innovation and creativity.

We will improve and expand our services that enable creators and innovators to understand, utilise and maximise the benefits of their IP.

We will continue to develop and maintain the guidance we offer including through GOV.UK, analysing usage and responding to changes in customer demand for this as the IP landscape evolves both domestically and internationally.

We already offer support to businesses, innovators and creators through our outreach work. We will refine our work to maximise our reach and impact on SMEs, helping them realise the value of their IP and to be better able to harness it to support them to thrive and grow.

Knowing how the IP system works helps individuals and businesses commercialise their innovation and creativity. We will continue to improve access to the IP system through our work to help students, researchers and entrepreneurs understand the value of IP. This will include working to enhance IP skills across different education levels and stages to provide a firm understanding.

Pillar: Our policy

Supporting innovation and the economy

Our policy work is key to the innovation ecosystem in the UK. The choices we make can have significant impacts on a range of sectors and industries. We will develop and advance policy that encourages innovation in the UK and by UK businesses globally. We are committed to evidence-based decision making and adding to that evidence base through purposeful research and robust evaluation.

Our ambition is for the UK to be an example of best practice internationally, sustaining the UK’s reputation as having a globally admired and well-regarded system of intellectual property rights. IP rights holders must be able to enforce their rights effectively in the UK and globally. Those who create should feel confident that their literature, art and music will not be misused in the UK or internationally.

Trade deals, and wider multilateral and bilateral engagement on IP, can yield growth for the UK. Where we can make the international IP system more effective, connected and user friendly, we will show thought leadership to shape the outcome of international negotiations. Elsewhere, we will keep pace through collaboration with international partners and by adopting best practice and international standards.

In the coming years, our strategic goals in this area are to:

Ensure that UK law incentivises innovation and creativity for the benefit of society.

Clear IP legislation gives individuals, businesses and organisations the confidence to innovate and create new technologies, products, content and ideas that advance society. It also enables inward investment. It must protect creators’ rights and help others build on those innovations to inspire further progress. Where the law may need to change, we will advocate for change. We will promote an IP system that gives consumers confidence while providing incentives for innovators and creators. It must also disseminate knowledge for the public good.

Ensure that Intellectual Property rights are respected, and that enforcement of IP occurs nationally and internationally.

A clear legal framework lays the foundation for effective IP rights, but IP rights do not provide sufficient incentive to create and innovate if they are not respected. Businesses and brand owners need effective mechanisms to prevent others from free riding on their investments. We will support effective civil and criminal enforcement of IP rights to provide justice for rights owners and to deter future infringers. We will work to reduce the demand for infringing goods and services. We will do this by working in partnership with rights holders, law enforcement and justice systems in the UK and overseas, and by helping consumers to understand the risks and consequences of buying counterfeits and pirated content.

Shape an IP system internationally that supports UK and global innovation.

The IP system has always been driven by international considerations. Where international rules and procedures need to change, we will press for this. This means seeking increased consistency across different jurisdictions to benefit UK companies. IP is central to what we want from our global trade agreements. We will continue to work bilaterally and through multinational negotiations to set an international IP framework that can support innovation fairly across the globe.

Pillar: Our organisation

High-performing, with skilled people connected by shared purpose

Embracing change will mean building on our strengths and successes and adapting where we know we can still do better. 

There is much to celebrate at the IPO. We are committed to continuously improving, even when we already lead the way. We are recognised for our fantastic customer service, our approach to staff that values and welcomes all and the importance our people place on collaboration and community. A ‘Brilliant Place to Work’ has been shorthand for our people practices and will continue to be part of how we do things at the IPO.

We will evolve our culture to best enable agility and accountability. Our planning and governance need to improve to serve the changed needs of our organisation. Our workforce skills and capability need to be fit for the future. These improvements will help us to build an organisation that is more than the sum of its parts.

We want our people to understand and feel energised by the challenge laid down by the strategy. Everyone at the IPO will be part of building the IPO of the future, we all need to embrace these changes and recommit to realise this collective ambition. Together, these improvements will help our work have shared meaning and enable opportunities for everyone to grow and progress while ensuring financial sustainability.  

In the coming years, our strategic goals in this area are to:

Develop our people and culture

People have been at the heart of our organisation for more than 170 years and will remain key to our success. We value each person’s individuality, facilitate meaningful connection and prioritise inclusion and belonging, making us a highly flexible, supportive organisation. We will become a consistently high-performing organisation through high-quality leadership and management, an openness to change and focus on action with a long-term orientation. We will build on our Continuous Improvement mindset, upskill and further engage our workforce. 

In the last year, we have agreed the culture that will best serve our strategy and objectives around high-performance by supporting every person at the IPO to thrive. In this culture, we are adaptable, we value ideas and take opportunities to make the IPO better. We are accountable for our experience, development and performance and build effective relationships with colleagues. Together we deliver our strategy, share our successes, and are connected to each other and our organisation.

To bring this culture to life, we will make changes to the key things that drive it, including processes, structures, skills and systems. We will deliver on the commitments in our new Leadership Strategy, prioritise developing a new People Strategy and deliver an Accommodation Strategy to ensure wherever we work (Newport, London or their chosen non-office location) the physical environment and the organisation around us helps us succeed together. We will develop our communications and systems so we can build collaborative relationships, a shared sense of pride and trust.  

Reassess and renew our governance and planning systems

Planning helps translate our strategy into action and ensures we can demonstrate and measure the progress we are making. It must be pragmatic, proportionate and consistently applied to avoid things slipping through gaps. Proactive, future-focused planning and effective action-orientated delivery is part of what will make us high-performing. We will improve the way we do corporate planning, financial planning, and strategic workforce planning. 

As a government agency, our governance framework is designed to give the public confidence in our decisions and ensure we are accountable. We need to balance agility and innovation with governance, planning and oversight. What we do and what we prioritise will depend on the changing needs of our business and workforce while ensuring financial sustainability. We will make clear, confident and evidence-based decisions and we will implement them effectively. For workforce planning we will look ahead and review our strategic goals against a range of scenarios to identify our future talent and critical skills needs and develop plans to meet those.

Be financially sustainable

We will shift our focus from annually managed budgets to longer term planning. This will cover the investment we need for our people, our working environment and equipment, our customer services and systems, and our policy aims.

We will continually invest in these rather than require large transformation programmes in future. Wherever possible, we will buy before build,  configure before code and reuse before new when providing software and services to minimise implementation time and cost, and reduce procurement, management, and maintenance overheads.

Our financial planning will ensure our spend is efficient, secures value for money and meets our HM Treasury financial targets. This will be supported by a Fees Strategy that matches fees to our future costs, anticipating and implementing changes to fees when required.

1. EPO and EUIPO (2021),  2021 Intellectual property rights and firm performance in the European Union. Analysis of a sample of 127,199 European firms, including 11,001 UK firms. IPRs analysed include patents, trade marks and/or designs (national and/or European rights).   ↩

2. EPO and EUIPO (2023), Patents, trade marks and startup finance - EUIPO (europa.eu). Analysis of a sample of 298,665 European start-ups, including 81,484 UK start-ups. IPRs analysed include patents and/or trade marks (national and/or European rights). See Patents, trade marks and startup finance - EUIPO (europa.eu).   ↩

3. UK IPO (2023), From public research spend to innovation: the role of registered IP. Analysis of a sample of 70,152 UK research grant holders between 2010 and 2020. Of those that reported a patent or trade mark outcome, 27% created a spinout company, 40% licensed their IP, and 49% engaged in private sector collaboration. ↩

4. The UK is rated as the world’s fourth most innovative economy by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and appeared second in the US Chamber of Commerce Global Innovation Policy Center International IP Index 2023. ↩

5. Investment in intangible assets in the UK: 2020, ONS, 2022. ↩

6. Use of Intellectual Property Rights across UK industries 2017 to 2019, IPO, 2022. ↩

7. UK tech sector now worth $1 trillion. ↩

8. Framework Document 2020. ↩