UK Chapter of Global Patent GO——Introduction to UK Patent Application

Empire on which the sun never sets in the afterglow of sunset

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the factory of the world, the first industrialized country in the world, the advocator of Western capitalism, the birthplace of early parliamentary democracy, after the last colony Hong Kong broke away from the territory of the empire on which the sun never sets, This empire, which once controlled 22% of the world's land and 20% of the world's population, is unsurprisingly declining.

The UK is the largest manufacturer of arms, petroleum products, televisions, computers and mobile phones in Europe. The industry focuses on biopharmaceuticals, aviation and defense, and is also the most innovative and competitive industry in the UK. The "Monopoly Law" promulgated by the Empire on which the sun never sets in 1624 not only made Britain the first country in the world to promulgate patent laws in the modern sense, but also greatly stimulated the great development of the British Industrial Revolution. It has been running wildly for nearly a century on the way forward.

Nevertheless, in November 2021, the Ministry of Commerce of China stated at a press conference that China has become the largest source of imports to the UK. From January to September, the trade volume between China and the UK has exceeded US$80 billion. The export growth rate exceeded 2 billion US dollars, quadrupling year-on-year. Although the new crown epidemic is still repeated, and the Sino-UK relationship has repeatedly reversed and reversed again and again, the facts have proved that the complementary relationship between China and the UK in terms of economic structure has made the Sino-UK trade relationship strong and dynamic. In the modern financial services industry, In areas such as clean energy and the digital economy, "the overall development trend and prospects are positive, and the future can be expected."

The protection of intellectual property rights in the United Kingdom adopts the method of independent legislation and dual protection of departmental laws. Only the protection of designs can be regulated by three laws, namely the "Registered Design Act", "Copyright Act" and "Design Copyright Act". Intellectual property rights will be subject to various civil and criminal remedies, and as a typical representative of the Anglo-American legal system, the United Kingdom has extremely severe penalties for intellectual property infringement. In the worst case of the industry, the right to reproduce a registered design Offenders face up to 10 years in prison and a fine. Today, we will look at the British patent system from the perspective of patents.

UK patent overview

1. Paths for Chinese applicants to apply for patents in the UK

Paris Convention, via Nationalization of PCT to UK national phase, direct application.

2. Review unit

The UK Intellectual Property Office, UKIPO, established in 1852, is part of the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is headquartered in Newport, South Wales. The UK will officially leave the EU on January 31, 2021, and UK patents after Brexit may have an impact on patent applicants in terms of application procedures, protected subjects and protected scope.

3. Submit your application

1) Time limit requirements: UKIPO recognizes the restoration of the priority right, and can enter the UK national phase at the latest 31 months from the filing date/priority date, and the English translation must be submitted to UKIPO at the same time as the entry.

2) Patent applications can be submitted by mail or online, and the online application fee is lower.

4. Formal examination

After the UKIPO receives the application documents, it conducts a formality examination of the application to meet specific formal requirements.

5. Request Retrieval

The applicant needs to submit a search request to UKIPO and pay the search fee within 12 months from the filing date. UKIPO will complete the search and provide a search report within 6 months.

6. Disclosure procedure

Patent applications and search reports will be published in patent journals 18 months from the priority date/filing date. There is no opposition procedure in UK patent applications, but the UKIPO still accepts third party public comments.

7. Review and Authorization

Within 6 months from the first publication of the patent application, the patent applicant needs to pay the substantive examination fee to UKIPO and submit a substantive examination request. If the examination meets the granted conditions, UKIPO will authorize, disclose and issue the patent certificate to the patent application.

8. Expedited procedures

1) CSE (Combined Search and Examination), that is, the applicant submits the search and examination request together when submitting the application to UKIPO, without explaining any reason.

2) ASE (Accelerated Search and Examination), that is, when requesting ASE, give a reasonable explanation to request UKIPO to expedite the examination, but there is no need to provide any substantive evidence. As long as there is no obvious violation of the regulations, UKIPO will approve it.

3) Accelerated Publication, which means that the patent applicant can submit a request for early publication after the search has been completed.

4) Green Channel, green channel, need to provide written request and evidence to explain the reasons for accelerated review.

5) PCT Fast Track, PCT Fast Track, for patent applications entering the UK national phase with PCT applications, the patent applicant needs to submit a written request; this service is free.

6) PPH (Patent Prosecution Highway, Patent Prosecution Highway), patent applicants can use other countries' examination results and examination conclusions to shorten the examination process at UKIPO.

9. Supplementary Protection Certificate System (SPC, Supplementary Protection Certificate)

As a member of the EU, the UK can enjoy the EU's patent supplementary protection certificate system to compensate for the market monopoly power that new drugs do not enjoy during the development and approval process. The maximum period of SPC protection is 5 years.
Highly successful technology transfer

In addition to the improvement of the intellectual property protection system, the UK's technology transfer is at the forefront of the world, and its "Lambert toolkit" that promotes the commercialization of intellectual property among enterprises and universities has achieved remarkable results in patent monetization.

Advantages of a UK patent

1. The United Kingdom is very friendly to small and medium-sized enterprises in terms of patent protection in the design and software industries. The United Kingdom is increasingly chosen as a place for patent infringement litigation.

2. The UK specially established the Patent Country Court (PCC) to protect inventors' small patent rights, so as to attract more small patent right holders to use patent litigation to protect their patent rights and patent utilization rate.

3. Make full use of the SPC system in the UK to extend the protection period of pharmaceutical patents.

Friendliness to Chinese applicants:

★★★★★

Gold content of patent rights:

★★★★★

The degree of perfection of the rights protection mechanism:

★★★★★