UKIPO reports strong TM growth, but patent filings decline
Patent filings at the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) fell by 8% last year, but trademark applications have held strong.
The findings came in the latest Facts and Figures Report, published by the IPO, today, May 27, and offer mixed results for an industry grappling with Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the annual report, the IPO revealed that trademark filings increased by 12.9% between 2018 and 2019, while trademark oppositions formed the majority of disputes dealt with by the office.
The strong growth in trademark applications was matched by a record number of trademark registrations in 2019, which increased 16.7% from the previous year.
But the picture is less positive for designs and patents. The decline in patent filings was accompanied by what the IPO described as a “levelling off” in design applications, which fell by 2.4%. The stagnation in design filings follows rapid growth of 304% over the past three years.
The decline in patent filings might be partially attributable to a rise in application fees, designed to discourage trivial applications, the IPO said.
In April 2018, the patent application fee rose from £20 to £60 for e-filings, and from £30 to £90 for paper filings, while an excess claims fee of £20 for each claim over 25 was also introduced.
Further research is required to fully explain the decline in patent filings, the report acknowledged.
Commenting on the trend, a spokesperson for the UK Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) said: "It is unclear if the decrease in filings in 2018‑2019 is attributable to the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, the potential advent of the Unitary Patent, and/or the fee structure that was implemented at that time by the IPO to modify applicant behaviour."
"We expect that we will see a filing recovery after COVID-19 based on historical post-crisis evidence, fuelled by a wave of innovation during lockdown with many new inventions materialising from healthcare and communication," the CIPA spokesperson added.
The highest number of non-UK applications for all types of IP rights came from the USA, with China taking second place, the IPO revealed.
Rolls-Royce was the leading patent filer, with 374 applications. Fellow UK carmaker Jaguar came in second place, with 190.
Global trademark registers took a hit early this year with the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest data from Clarivate Analytics indicates trademark filings have begun to settle after a sharp drop-off in mid-March.
The world’s biggest IP offices, including the IPO, the European Intellectual Property Office, and the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), all saw reduced filings as COVID-19 spread to Europe and North America from its original epicentre in China.
But according to Clarivate data, filings have begun to level out, albeit at lower levels than seen before the pandemic.
“We can’t say with certainty that this is the new normal, only over time are we going to see if people have just been putting off filing trademarks,” Clarivate’s director of government and content strategy, Robert Reading, told WIPR at the time.
The decline had prompted concern for the finances of the USPTO, which waived filing fees for many applicants in late March.
“As a fully fee-funded agency, the USPTO is more likely than other agencies to feel the residual effects of any crisis’s impact on the private sector,” said a letter from six US lawmakers including Senators Thom Tillis and Chris Coons.
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