Government announces greater consistency and simplicity for trade mark and design customers

The Intellectual Property Office's digital transformation has reached another key milestone with the government response to its second transformation consultation being published today. This consultation ran between August and October 2023.

From the outset, the IPO's transformation programme has promised to deliver not only technical improvements, but a fundamental reimagining of its business. The consultation proposed changes to the law and IPO policy to help propel the IPO's services into the digital age and put powerful tools at the fingertips of innovators and creators.

The consultation primarily focused on changes to the IPO's trade mark, design and tribunal services. The changes will bring greater consistency across IP rights and make it simpler for customers to interact with the IPO.

The IPO is already gearing up for the launch of its new digital patents service in autumn 2025, with a small number of customers already actively using the service as part of its pilot.

Development of the new trade marks, designs and tribunal services is expected to begin in the autumn, slightly later than anticipated.

Main outcomes of the consultation

1. Publishing trade mark and design documents online for the first time, alongside changes to the rules governing confidentiality requests and inspection of designs documents. 

2. Simplifying trade mark applications by discontinuing the series marks service for new applicants in the future.  

3. Trialling mediation meetings for disputes at the IPO Tribunal, in cases where neither party has legal representation. 

4. Extending fee payment periods for Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) to increase consistency across IP rights.  

5. Reducing the patent inventor address details collected and published.

Making trade marks and designs documents available online

The IPO will be replacing its existing trade mark and design search services. In future, the public will be able to search for patents, trade marks and designs in one place, via the new One IPO Search tool. When this happens, trade mark and design documents will be available online for public inspection for the first time, as is already the case for patents. This could include examination reports, for example.

In addition, the government will seek to change the rules on confidentiality requests and the inspection of design documents. This will allow anyone to request, at any time, that their information is kept confidential, and also means that designs documents can be made publicly available without delay.

These changes will make trade mark and design documents quicker and easier to access, while allowing customers to request that their information is kept confidential as needed.

Simplifying trade mark applications by discontinuing the series marks service

The IPO currently offers customers the option to apply for up to six trade marks as a series at a reduced cost. The trade marks in the series must be very similar - for example the same logo in different colours.

Many customers find series marks confusing and 65% of series mark applications are filed by applicants who don't have a representative. In 2022, 39% of these were objected to for not meeting the requirements for registering a series of trade marks. This could result in customers paying for additional trade mark applications unnecessarily. Series marks also offer limited additional legal protection and so don't represent value for money for the customer.

As a result, the Government is discontinuing the series marks service, to simplify the trade mark application process and offer better value for money. This change will come into effect when our new digital trade marks service launches.

Existing series marks will remain valid and will not be impacted by this change. The series marks service will only be discontinued for new applications when the new digital trade marks service is launched.

Trialling mediation meetings for IP disputes

The Government is trialling new mediation meetings for certain disputes at the IPO Tribunal – starting summer 2025. It will give parties who do not have legal representation an opportunity  to explore the benefits of mediation, which may resolve their dispute quicker and cheaper than formal legal proceedings.

Aligning payment periods

The Government will further align payment periods across its IP rights services to simplify them for customers. Specifically, the Government will extend the fee payment periods for supplementary protection certificates, to bring greater consistency with other payment periods. This change is expected to come into effect when our new digital trade marks, designs and IPO Tribunal services launch.

Reducing the patent inventor address details collected and published

The Government will reduce the patent inventor address details collected and published.  This is to take a more proportional approach and safeguard personal information of inventors. This change is expected to come into effect when our new digital trade marks, designs and IPO Tribunal services launch.

The IPO's CEO Adam Williams said:

We're incredibly grateful to everyone who contributed their valuable insights to our transformation consultation.

Our digital transformation journey is not just about implementing new technology—it's a reimagining of our entire approach to delivering a better service; to do that we need to challenge ourselves to see what could be done differently, even if that means changes to existing legislation.

This is a really important step on our pathway towards delivering significantly improved, modern digital services that will better meet the needs of our customers - both now and in the future.

Kelly Saliger, President of CITMA said:

Whilst change isn't always comfortable, it is a necessary step in recognising evolving customer and business needs. CITMA are grateful for the collaborative approach taken in respect of consultation with the UK IPO and look forward to continuing that work when arranging implementation.  

As a professional membership organisation CITMA welcomes change where it offers clarity or provides efficiencies for IP specialists and will continue to offer guidance and input to the UK IPO on the next stage of consultation for the Trade Mark and Designs sections of the One IPO Transformation programme.

Notes to editors

• The consultation ran for 10 weeks between 22 August 2023 and 31 October 2023.

• The government response includes a summary of the submissions for each question in the consultation. All views submitted are those of respondents and should not be taken as the views of the IPO.

• The IPO also held a number of round-table events with various stakeholder groups, including organisations that represent IP attorneys, business and the wider legal profession.

• This consultation followed the government's first transformation consultation, which primarily focused on the new digital patents service. 

• The IPO currently collects and publishes full address details for patent inventors. In future, we will seek to collect and publish less specific information, avoiding publication of the full street address.

• In January 2025, the IPO launched its new ‘One IPO Search' tool.  This offers a new and improved way for the public to search patents data. Over 10,000 searches have now been made using this new service.  In future, trade mark and design searches will be added to the search service, offering enhanced features and functionality compared to the existing trade mark and design search tools.

• The pilot of the IPO's new ‘One IPO Patents' service, which includes customer accounts and patent applications, has continued to ramp up, with 65 external users from a range of firms signed up to use the service.