UK Intellectual Property Office: Standards

(asked on 3rd July 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many applications for a patent lodged at the Intellectual Property Office have been pending a decision for over (a) two, (b) three and (c) 4 years.


Answered by
Sam Gyimah Portrait
Sam Gyimah
This question was answered on 10th July 2018

The number of patent applications which have been pending a decision for over two, three and four years are:

(a) Over two years: 8233

(b) Over three years: 3863

(c) Over four years: 1241

The IPO has a Ministerial Target, offering faster handling of patent applications by providing an examination report with a search report when both are requested at the application date, and meeting at least 90% of requests for an accelerated two-month turnaround for search, publication and examination. All requests to receive the search and examination reports together are acceded to; and 97% of all accelerated examination requests have been completed within 2 months of request for the current financial year.

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