Consultation response on fast-track processing of patents

The consultation response document (112Kb) on the fast track processing of patents was published on 1 December 2008.

Responses to the proposed new fast track system for processing patent applications were mixed.

Overall there was greater support for retaining a system along the lines of our current accelerated services than for a system similar to that proposed in the consultation document. Some did however comment that there was a lack of awareness of our existing services.

In the light of these responses a fast track system for processing patent applications in the terms proposed in the consultation document will not be introduced.

Instead the Intellectual Property Office is clarifying and giving more prominence to guidance in relation to existing accelerated services for patents. This new guidance (166Kb) sets out more clearly how existing accelerated services may be used to provide a single fast track to grant.