Next year the London Underground is 150 years old. With an extensive maintenance project underway some might say it is showing its age.

The UK Intellectual Property Offfice on the other hand celebrates 160 years this year and this IPcopywriter believes it is a case of 160 years young rather than 160 years old.

There has been a lot of talk recently on the proposed regulation for the Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court. Some commentators have suggested that the proposed regulation could undermine the established European patent system that is already in place.

If that’s the case then what does filing a direct UK patent application via the UK-IPO have to offer someone looking to secure patent protection in the UK?

1. Speed (1) – the UK patent application process has a built in completion date for prosecution. Patent applications need to be put in order within 4.5 years of the earliest priority/filing date (or 12 months from the first exam report if that period expires later than the 4.5 year period).

This potentially is a quicker process than prosecution at the European Patent Office where cases can fall into a kind of prosecution limbo and responses from the Examiner can take 1-2 years or maybe even longer to materialise.

2. Speed (2). The UK IPO has in my experience demonstrated the capability of moving an application through the prosecution process at some speed once accelerated prosecution has been requested. Applicants are able to ask for early search, publication and examination where, for example, there’s a commercial need to get a granted patent right.

There’s no official fee for accelerating the case and moving from filing to grant has been known to take place in as little as 7 months for some attorneys I’ve worked with.

Gaining a granted right quickly could be extremely helpful for IP rights holders concerned about potential infringers.

3. Cost – UK official fee for search and examination is around £200. Official fee for search and examination at the EPO is over 2700 Euros.

4. National phase entry – it is possible to enter the UK national phase from a PCT application at 31 months. It is noted that not all EP contracting states can be entered directly in this manner.

So, a UK patent application filed at the UKIPO has a number of attractive features. Will the number of direct UK applications and UK national phase entries from the PCT increase if and when the unitary patent comes into force? Time will tell!