UKIPO launches digital IP renewal service
The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has launched a new digital IP renewal service today that promises to cut the time to renew IP rights from five days to five minutes.
The official launch follows a trial period of the service which ran from April to December last year and processed more than 550,000 renewals.
The feedback from the trial was overwhelmingly positive, receiving a 96% satisfaction rating from users.
Peter Slater, deputy director of the IPO’s technical change team said: “The journey toward introducing a new service isn’t always going to be seamless, particularly at the very earliest stages. Therefore, the value of testing new services with a range of customers with different needs could not be clearer.
"This approach has helped us design a system that met the needs of all our customers, whether they file one renewal or 1,000.
“The service has had an overwhelmingly positive reception, but there’s always room for improvement, so we will continue to review and improve the service going forward.”
This system is the first feature of the UK’s new ‘One IPO’ system which looks to unify a single renewal service for all registered IP. With this official launch, users will be able to renew up to 1,500 rights at a time.
Currently, the system allows users to renew patents, trademarks and designs.
David Holdsworth, deputy CEO and director of operational delivery at the IPO said: “Our digital renewals service gives a taster of what you can expect in future.
“A single, integrated system where you can complete all of your renewals in one place, whether it’s a patent, trademark or design. In future, all IPO services will work this way—one IPO service for all of your IP needs in one place.”
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