For most trainee patent attorneys, the UK Intellectual Patent Office (UKIPO) is a mystical place full of unknown examiners with whom you volley with in order to get your patent application through to grant. Amidst all of the forms and letters exchanged during patent examination, it is easy to forget that it is possible, and often advantageous, to simply ring the UKIPO to clarify or questions any points of confusion.
Thus, when I learned that the CIPA Informals committee had arranged in-person visits to the UKIPO this June, I jumped at the opportunity! There were only 2 days available, and they booked up almost as quickly as Beyonce tickets.
From London I took a short train and a taxi to arrive in Newport, South Wales at the very modern UKIPO headquarters. Upon arrival, I learned that the building was built heavily reinforced to accommodate the vast quantities of paperwork expected. However, digitisation has deemed those intentions redundant.
The day started with a welcome from Phil Thorpe, Deputy Director, who gave us a fantastic overview and introduction to the UKIPO, followed by an informative presentation from Alessandro Potenza on patenting inventions concerning artificial intelligence and other topics surrounding excluded subject matter.
Next came my favourite part, a chance to meet some of the Examiners from the UKIPO, see where and how they work, and get a backstage tour into how they search and prepare examination reports. We had a fantastic two-way discussion that really demystified what each other do – the junior Examiners had plenty of questions about the day to day work of a trainee patent attorney. At the end of the day patent attorneys and examiners work together to move an application through to grant, and it was helpful to discuss how we can work best together.
After lunch, Rhys Williams from Abel + Imray ran a claims drafting workshop where we discussed approaches to drafting and worked together in groups on an interesting real-life example.
We were also told of the One IPO Transformation Project that the UKIPO is presently going through which will bring new and transformed services that will be fully digital, quicker and easier to use. It is presently scheduled to launch for patent services in spring 2024 and sounds very exciting!
I’m very grateful for the CIPA Informals committee for organising the open day and recommend the event to anyone who’s interested in finding out more about the UKIPO. Keep and eye out for the event next summer and make sure you are quick to book a place!
