Documents
Manual of Patent Practice
The Manual of Patent Practice explains our practice under the Patents Act 1977.
The Manual recites sections of the Patents Act 1977 and sections of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 relating to patents. Each provision includes commentary with related legislation in the margin. Further parts of the Manual show official notices and directions from the Patents and Designs Journal. There is also a section on Supplementary Protection Certificates for Medicinal Products and Plant Protection Products.
We update the Manual regularly to reflect recent developments such as changes in the law and judicial decisions. For example, the Manual was updated on 18 February 2008 to incorporate changes resulting from the Patents Rules 2007 and EPC 2000. Any changes since the February 2008 edition are indicated by a marginal line.
The most recent update occurred on 1 January 2009, when
substantive changes
were made to the Introduction, Sections 1, 3, 14, 16-20, 23, 32, 73, 76, 90, 128A, 128B, 130, the Table
of Cases, and the Index. Details of the main changes made may be found here 
(19Kb). Any new text since the October 2008 edition is highlighted in red, with a sidebar marking
all paragraphs which have changed since February 2008. The footer of each page includes an indication
of the date of the latest update to that section of the Manual.
Please note that statements made in the Manual are not in themselves an authority for any action by the Intellectual Property Office and should not be used as a set of legal requirements. If you wish to point out an error in the Manual, you can contact the editor by e-mailing mppeditor@ipo.gov.uk.