Practice in UK patent proceedings before the Comptroller

Earlier this year the UK'a Intellectual Property Office indicated that, since March 2008, it had been undertaking an internal review of practice before its patent tribunal in order to identify ways in which the IPO might cater better for the needs of those wanting to litigate patents at the Intellectual Property Office (see earlier PatLit post here). The principal objective of the review was to make patent litigation before the Office more accessible and less expensive in terms of time and money.

Having taken into account the views of attorneys, solicitors, counsel and others as to how the tribunal might be improved, the IPO has now produced a Tribunal Practice Notice which sets out the changes in practice which the office proposes to introduce. These changes are due to come into effect from 1 July 2009 and may be applied to existing proceedings at the hearing officer’s discretion.

In the meantime, comments on the Tribunal Practice Notice are welcome, so as they are received by 3 June 2009. Comments should be addressed to Barney Wright, Room 1.B82, The Intellectual Property Office, Concept House, Cardiff Road, Newport, NP10 8QQ or emailed to patrribunalreview@ipo.gov.uk.