Patents service updates and improvements
Information on the improvements we’re making to the patents service, including upcoming improvements and the latest updates.
What we’re working on
We’ve published a roadmap we’re working on over the next 12 months. These are the highest priority improvements that we’re working on now. We expect these to be done in summer / autumn 2026.
-
patent application improvements
- changes to make it easier to select the correct representative for the account
- when you submit a patent application you will get an immediate receipt of what you submitted. This ‘submission receipt’ will give you all the information you’d have in your official filing receipt and more, including any documents
- improvements to ‘check your answers’ page to include fee details and to prompt further checks -
respond to an examination improvements
- additional documents upload option, allowing response letter in PDF format and option to add your reference to the response -
improvements to account sign up
- introduce a better process for linking your account to your patents when you sign up
What we’ve already done
Release notes: 22 July 2026
Service improvements
Apply for a patent
We have made the following improvements to the Apply for a patent service:
-
you will now be able to add representative details more easily when applying for a GB patent. On the ’Assign representation’ screen you will now be presented with three options if your account is linked to an organisation:
- the organisation your account is linked to
- the applicant
- a different attorney or individual
This means that you will only need to search for an attorney or representative if the representative is not you / your organisation. This update has not yet been applied to national phase applications -
when you file a national phase application email notifications are now automated wherever it is possible to automate them
-
when you remove an applicant from your patent application it will now also remove them as the inventor. Previously if you removed an applicant, they would be retained as the inventor
-
when updating an application you will now see a change on the final confirmation page or ‘green screen’. That screen will now contain a link saying ‘View this request in your application history’. This will take you to the relevant patent details in your account
-
you will find a link to updated guidance on the ‘Upload the claims’ page
-
you will see updated content if you receive any error messages when filing a national phase application, so it is consistent with other parts of the service
Manage intellectual property
We have made the following improvements to the Manage intellectual property service:
- when creating an account for the first time, you will have a better experience. We have introduced improvements to how patent owners and representatives link their account to their patents. It removes steps from the process and makes it easier to verify who you are, with less manual intervention from IPO staff. This is the first in a series of updates on this theme.
Service-wide improvements
We have made the following improvements to the whole service:
-
you will see changes to improve the accessibility of invoice PDF files, including appropriate alt-text and document titles
-
we’re making ongoing enhancements to platform performance and security
Release notes: 11 June 2026
Service improvements
Apply for a patent
We’ve made the following updates to the apply for a patent service:
- you will now see consistent content when applying for divisional applications and GB patent applications. Specifically:
- when submitting a ‘File only’ divisional application you will no longer see excess fees reference for descriptions over 35 pages
- when submitting a ‘File & search’ divisional application you will now see the relevant excess fees
Manage intellectual property
We’ve made the following updates to the Manage intellectual property service:
- you will see changes to the ‘enter numbers’ screen to improve usability and consistency when submitting a Change of representative. This included changing the size of the headers, changes to spacing and tweaks to language used
Service-wide improvements
We have made the following improvements to the whole service:
- we made a security update to address an isolated incident on 5 June. This resulted in a period of maintenance while the root cause was identified and fixed
Bug fixes
Apply for a patent
We’ve fixed the following bugs in the Apply for a patents service:
- you will no longer see long names dragging across the screen on the inventor permissions screen. Text will now be contained to the correct margins for the page format
Manage intellectual property
We’ve fixed the following bugs in the Manage intellectual property service:
- you will no longer see formatting issues causing unexpected hyperlinks and characters on specific pages in the Manage intellectual property service
- you will no longer encounter an error when selecting certain owner options when transferring ownership of patents and changing representative. This occurred on the ‘Check your answers’ page if you added two owners and then also selected the first owner (with a newly added address) as the representative
Release notes: 28 May 2026
Service improvements
Apply for a patent
We’ve made the following updates to the apply for a patent service.
You will now see accurate fees when:
- requesting a Search after a filing date only application has been submitted and the application fee has been paid
- requesting a Search & Examination, after a filing date only application has been submitted and the application fee has been paid
The application fee is now not included in the fees if the customer has already paid the application fee.
- you will now see updated fee information when selecting the type of divisional application you wish to make. The updated information reflects our latest fees as of 1 April 2026
Manage intellectual property
We’ve made the following updates to the Manage intellectual property service:
- you will see minor updates to the account home page to make navigation easier
Bug fixes
We’ve fixed the following bugs in the Apply for a patents service:
-
you will now see the transaction number displayed on the confirmation screen when requesting a patent examination
-
when updating inventor details for a patent, you will always be able to see when you have selected ‘other’ as the reason that the applicant has derived the right to apply for the patent from the inventor. Previously, this wasn’t visible if the ‘other’ option was selected when the application was originally submitted
Release notes: 7 May 2026
Service improvements
Apply for a patent
We’ve made the following updates to the apply for a patent service:
- you will now receive an email confirming receipt of your payment immediately after filing a patent. The IPO will still need to complete checks to confirm the correct fees have been paid before the invoice is issued
Service-wide updates
We’ve made the following improvements to the whole service:
- you will now see customer name added to invoices
Bug fixes
We’ve fixed the following bugs in the Apply for a patents service:
- you will no longer see a value of ‘0’ returned in the ‘fee to pay’ field on excess claims or excess pages. The correct fee is now displayed
- you will no longer encounter an issue where you cannot file new documents or update documents to progress your application when responding to an examination report
- fixed an issue related to filenames which would result in a small number of transactions not progressing through our internal systems in the usual way
Release notes: 16 April 2026
Service improvements
Apply for a patent
We’ve made the following updates to the apply for a patent service:
-
you will no longer see an error in the content of the ‘Title of the invention’ page
-
you will see updated text on the ‘Add applicants’ page that is easier to understand
Service-wide updates
We’ve made the following updates to the whole service:
- you will now see links to provide feedback on all submission confirmation pages