New faster online patent renewal service goes live
Intellectual Property Office launches its new online patent renewal service.
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) today (1 July 2014) launched its new online patent renewal service, making it simpler, quicker and cheaper for businesses and inventors to renew their patents.
‘Renew a patent’ is one of the government’s 25 exemplar projects which are focused on redesigning and rebuilding government services, helping to transform the way people use services online.
Lord Younger, Minister for Intellectual Property (IP), said:
More than 400,000 patents are renewed every year and more than a quarter of paper submissions have errors. A renewal request can be completed using the new service in under 4 minutes saving valuable time and money for both IP specialists and businesses.
The IPO is committed to delivering high quality services and improving the experience of its customers, and this latest development is part of a programme to transform all of its digital services.
Development of the new service began in August 2013 and through various testing phases, customers have so far renewed more than 2,500 patents to date. Feedback from businesses, private applicants and IP professionals, has helped define the service launched today.
This new service is part of a reform programme to simplify and improve customers’ experience. People can already apply online for patents and trade marks. They can also renew trade marks online, but today’s launch is another step forward in the IPO’s digital services transformation.
The IPO will also be moving its website to the GOV.UK platform later this year (2014).
Notes for editors
- The new service, ‘Renew a patent’ can be found at www.gov.uk/renew-patent. It will not replace existing methods of renewing patents, details of which can be found at www.gov.uk/renew-patent#other-ways-to-apply.
- The IPO provides a range of key services online, including searching for a patent (www.gov.uk/search-for-patent) and applying for patents (www.gov.uk/apply-for-a-patent) as well as registering trade marks (www.gov.uk/register-a-trademark).
- ‘Renew a patent’ is one of the government’s 25 exemplar projects helping to transform the way people use online services. More information about the programme can be found at www.gov.uk/transformation.