Complaints procedure


IPO process for making a complaint

We are committed to delivering excellent services to our customers. Our customer approach sets out that we will use customer feedback, insight and data for continuous improvement and service development. We will be accountable when things go wrong and take steps to put things right.

When to use this process

Contact us as soon as possible if you are unhappy with the service you receive, for example:

We will look at your complaint and try to put things right as soon as possible. We will acknowledge your complaint and aim to reply in full, within 10 working days but if the problem is complex and we need more time we will let you know.

We cannot handle complaints against patent attorneys or registered trade mark attorneys - these are dealt with by IPReg.

How to complain

If you have a complaint, please complete our feedback form or email Customer Experience Unit so that your complaint can be processed by our team. You can ask for your complaint to be dealt with by the staff member you have been dealing with directly or by someone else.

You can also contact us to complain by phone on 0300 300 2000 or post.

Customer Experience Unit
Intellectual Property Office
Concept House
Cardiff Road
Newport
South Wales
NP10 8QQ
United Kingdom

What happens when you complain to IPO

Our Customer Charter sets out that we will be helpful, respectful and reasonable in all our dealings with customers. We will be clear about our role and our treatment of our customers will be impartial, honest and fair. We aim to reply within 10 working days, but if the problem is complex and we need more time we will let you know. We will let you know the outcome and explain why we have reached our conclusion. If we’ve made a mistake, we will explain what happened and put things right as quickly as we can. If we identify improvements to our processes during our investigation, we will tell you what they are and how we plan to make those changes to improve how we do things in the future.

If your complaint relates to ongoing legal proceedings before the IPO between you and another party then please be aware that, in the interests of transparency and fairness, any correspondence that you send to us, or we send to you, may be copied to the other party in the proceedings.

How to take your complaint further

You can escalate your complaint by contacting the Customer Experience Unit. You can do this by completing our feedback form or email CEUmailbox@ipo.gov.uk and ask for a senior manager to review your complaint and explain why our previous responses have not addressed your concerns. The senior manager will respond as quickly as possible within 10 working days. Our escalation process allows for a complaint to be escalated twice. If you are unhappy with the outcome after escalation, you can ask your MP to take up your complaint with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. The Ombudsman is independent of all government bodies and will review your complaint.