Electronic publication of patent documents

From 1 April 2010 the Intellectual Property Office will be utilising its on-line publication server as its official publication means for all published, granted and corrected patent publication documents.

The patent documents are published on our website via the Patents Publication Enquiry Service, these documents are freely available to view and download by our customers. The granted and corrected (errata) patent publication documents are made available on-line at 08:00 on the day of publication (usually every Wednesday), the A publication documents are made available at 13:00 on the day of publication.

As a result of on-line publication, from 1 April 2010 the Intellectual Property Office will cease to automatically supply physical paper copies of A published, granted and corrected patent publication documents to applicants. Our publication letters have been amended to direct customers to our on-line service.

The following types of GB published documents are available:

Document code A - for the published "A" application.

Document code A8 - for the corrected front page of a published "A" application (changes to bibliographical data only).

Document code A9 - for the complete re-issue of a published "A" application (as a result of a correction).

Document code B - for the granted ‘B’ specification.

Document code B8 - for the corrected front page of a granted "B" specification (changes to bibliographical data only).

Document code C - for complete re-issue of a granted "B" specification (as a result of a correction or amendment).

Physical copies of A, B and corrected publication documents will continue to be made available to purchase via our sales department.

Background

To help achieve Government targets to reduce carbon emissions and reduce environmental and resource costs the Patents Directorate of the Intellectual Property Office has recently undertaken an internal review of its printing and publishing policies and procedures.

The main aims of the review were to:

  • Reduce the amount of printed material generated by the patents granting process.
  • Increase emphasis on electronic communication and engagement with our customers.
  • Streamline internal procedures to realise further benefits from our electronic case management system and processes.

As a result of this review and online-consultation PDF document(51Kb) it was decided that the delivery of our publishing and printing activities change, namely: the cessation of automatic supply of physical copies of A, B and corrected patent publication documents to applicants, saving approximately 400,000 sheets of paper per annum, thereby reducing the Intellectual Property Office’s carbon footprint.

Utilising the on-line publication server, via the Patents Publication Enquiry link, as our official means of publication also brings the Intellectual Property Office in-line with other national and regional offices. For instance, the European Patent Office has been utilising its electronic publication server as its official means of publication since January 2008.

If you have any questions or comments concerning this notice please contact Emma Callaghan, +44(0) 1633 814876