UKIPO clears exam backlog for ‘first time in years’
A backlog of more than 45,000 patent, trademark and design examinations has been cleared for the first time in several years, according to the Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
This follows two of the IPO’s busiest years, when “record” numbers of applications and change requests were received—partly due to Brexit and COVID-19.
Backlogs are cases that take longer than the IPO’s usual service standards, it explained. But clearing this backlog, it said, has resulted in a faster service for customers.
Various improvements to processes and services were made, new staff hired and new resources brought in to streamline examination applications.
For example, to get through the trademarks and designs backlog, the IPO invested in better forecasting tools, which allowed it to plan resources more effectively and to be better able to cope with demand.
Tim Moss, the IPO’s CEO—who is to exit the role this September—said: “Clearing our backlogs has been a huge team effort, especially given the challenges we faced in Brexit and COVID-19.
“Our teams have worked incredibly hard and made processes more efficient to help us complete examinations more quickly. Now that we have cleared the backlogs we can focus firmly on our transformation plans.”
Robert Reading, head of content strategy, IP Group at Clarivate, told WIPR: "The UK has seen trademark filing volume increase dramatically in recent years, [by] 31% in 2020 and 38% in 2021.
"At the same time, the office has faced the addition of 1.5 million cloned trademark rights (tripling the size of the UK trademark register overnight on January 1, 2021), and a huge number of requests to update records as UK representatives were added to tens of thousands of cloned EU trademark rights."
He added: "Before the end of the Brexit transition period, the UK registry had a world leading examination time—new applications were examined by the UKIPO in a matter of weeks, compared to months or even years at other trademark registries.
"While waiting times in the US and Canada in particular continue to be at record highs, it is a huge credit to the UKIPO that they have managed to completely clear the backlog in under 18 months, and again offer one of the world's fastest examination times for trademark applicants."
Clearing the backlogs At its peak, in March 2021, the trademark backlog stood at 32,185 applications, with the examination process taking 35 days, reports the IPO. The office is now processing trademark applications within its target of 10 days. The office also had a backlog of 9,507 design applications, with it taking 32 days to process a case.
An uplift in the number of applications for trademarks is behind the backlog, said the IPO “Domestic trademark applications have more than doubled over five years—from around 65,000, to more than 150,000 last year.
“Since the UK exited the European Union, customers now have to go to the UKIPO if they want UK protection—previously they could file at the EUIPO and gain UK protection.”
The IPO also explained that the pandemic led to new businesses being set up or businesses diversifying in response.
Patent backlogs—those that have not been examined more than 42 months after the initial application—have been building over the past two decades.
The number of late patent examinations reduced from 13,000 to zero over the past three years. In April 2021 the patent backlog stood at 6,007 cases, comprising 12 million pages. This scale of work is “unprecedented”, said the IPO.
Updates to the IP register also added to the IPO’s workload, such as changes of address, the office reported. In 2021 the office received 80,000 more change requests for trademarks and designs than it would receive in a typical year.
Customer satisfaction
Meanwhile, the IPO reports that customer satisfaction with its speed of service for patent examination has almost doubled over the past three years, rising from 42% in 2019 to 75% in 2022.
Overall, the IPO achieved a customer satisfaction score of 88% in March 2022, a figure that it says is “among the highest in the UK across any industry”. The score also exceeds the IPO’s ministerial target of 85%.
The One IPO Transformation Programme, launched last April, will “make the most of digital technology” and integrate the IP application and examination system. The programme’s patent service is due to launch within two years.
