Electronic publication of patent documents

Since 1 April 2010 we have utilised our on-line publication server as our 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 8am on the day of publication (usually every Wednesday), the A publication documents are made available at 1pm on the day of publication.

As a result of on-line publication, since 1 April 2010 the we no longer automatically supply physical paper copies of A published, granted and corrected patent publication documents to applicants. Our publication letters were 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.