Government response to UK IPO digital transformation consultation
The UK IPO has announced that it will “continue to allow deadlines that expire on weekends and public holidays to extend to the next working day”.
In a detailed response, published on 1st August 2023, the government set out its next steps on a raft of proposed changes that it was consulting on as part of the UK IPO’s digital transformation project.
The proposed changes included the UK IPO extending its hours of business to seven days a week, the automation of systems and processes, and modernising the legal framework.
CITMA responded to the consultation on behalf of the UK trade mark attorney profession, setting out why we believed allowing deadlines to expire on weekends and public holidays was not in the interests of rights holders.
We set out views on many of the 28 questions which were designed to explore “options to remove legal barriers, address inconsistencies between IP rights and introduce flexibility for easier future adaptation.”
The consultation ran from 3rd November 2022 to 6th January 2023 and received 88 responses.
Click here to read the consultation response in full
The UK IPO said on its website that: “The responses have helped inform planned legislative changes and system design ahead of the launch of new services under the One IPO Transformation programme. This forms part of ongoing work under the programme with further public consultations related to legislation, practice and system design planned for other issues.”
The new patents service is due to launch in 2024 with the trade marks and designs service following in 2025.
It aims to “create a single, integrated system for all registered intellectual property (IP) rights and provide fully digital services.”