Patents and trade marks filed 2010 – 2020
Published 13 November 2023
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/patents-and-trade-marks-filed-2010-2020/patents-and-trade-marks-filed-2010-2020
Date of release
23 February 2021.
Information request:
The following statistical data for the years 2010-2020, viz.:
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the number of applications for new patents received
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the number of applications rejected
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the number of applications to register new trade marks received
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the number of applications rejected.
Where possible within the [FOI] cost cap, a summary of categories for rejections would be desirable with the data broken down by year, and ideally in an Excel spreadsheet.
Information released:
Information on patent and trade mark applications is published annually in our Facts and Figures, the latest of which is 2019. There is a link to the report and previous ones.
Those reports date from 2012 and prior to that you can find the link to the earlier reports via the National Archives.
The application figures for 2020 have been published monthly through 2020 up to November and the December figures are due to be published. imminently.
The figures for ‘rejected’ applications are more problematic. To take trade marks, the bulk of our refusals occur following examination at pre-publication stage. We do not provide reasons externally why a case has been refused, and we believe that the prohibition extends to the provision of the total numbers of each refusal category relating to pre-publication cases.
In a similar vein, we don’t provide numbers of patent applications filed in each technical area if the data relates to pre-publication applications.
We therefore consider the information regarding unsuccessful (unpublished) applications to be exempt from disclosure under section 44 (1) (a) of the Freedom of Information Act, which applies to prohibitions under any enactment.