Changes to trade mark forms

From 2 April 2007, The Patent Office officially becomes The UK Intellectual Property Office. As a result of our name change, all publications and forms are being re-branded with our new logo ready for launch.

We took this opportunity to review our trade mark forms and have decided to make amendments to a number of them.

Those most affected are:

• TM7 (Notice of opposition and statement of grounds)
• TM8 (Notice of defence and counterstatement)
• TM26(i) (Application for invalidation)
• TM26(n) (Application to revoke for reasons of non use)
• TM26(o) (Application to revoke for other reasons)
• TM26(r) (Application to rectify the register)
• TM53 (Request to proceed to evidence rounds)

From 2 April 2007, these forms feature a new question asking if the parties of the dispute would like further information on mediation.

We have also made a number of other changes:

• We amended the wording of boxes 5 and 6 of the TM8 to bring the form into line with its online equivalent which is also due to launch on 2 April 2007.

• We added a number of clarification questions to the TM7 under the “Statement of grounds for opposition based on Section 5(1) or (2) of the Trade marks Act 1994.”

• A number of forms now carry additional notes and many now ask for an address where they currently ask only for a name.

When using our forms on or after the 2 April 2007, it is important that you familiarise yourself with the content.

We will continue to accept the old style forms until 29 June 2007.