1 January 2011CopyrightIona Harding and James Whymark

Business brief 2011: UK

Patents

How do you register or secure patent rights, and is national or international coverage most appropriate?

To secure a UK patent, applicants can apply to the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) or to the European Patent Office (EPO) designating the UK.

Both IPO and EPO applications must include a full description of the invention (including any drawings), a set of claims defining the invention and a short abstract summarising the technical features of the invention.

Whether applicants should register their rights nationally or internationally depends on where they want to enforce their patent and on how much money they want to spend on the registration process. Applicants should always register in their key markets.

International protection may be sought via the EPO (for European countries) or under the Patents Cooperation Treaty (PCT) system.

What are the costs for registering a patent, and what are the costs of defending it?

UK IPO

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