On Wednesday, Her Majesty the Queen (Head of State of the UK and 15 other Commonwealth realms and Bond Girl) delivered the Queen’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament and set out the measures the government wants to get through Parliament in the year ahead.

As well as bills relating to immigration and the new high speed rail link, the Queen’s Speech introduced the Intellectual Property Bill.

According to this BBC article, the Intellectual Property Bill will simplify patent and design laws, implement the Unified Patent Court, introduce criminal penalties for UK design infringement and bring in measures to speed up the patent application process. Quite a full plate then!

I understand from someone at the UKIPO that there is no publicly available information relating to the detail of the Bill yet but that it is due shortly [Update: “shortly” in this context being about four hours! The government link now includes links to the Bill as introduced – pdf version here]. For those interested, the progress of the Bill can be followed at this government link.

For those wondering about the reference to Ping Pong above, the government link above clarifies that “When a Bill passes back and forth between the two Houses debating amendments to the Bill, the descriptive term ‘Ping Pong’ is often used.” Or, presumably,  “Wiff Waff” if you’re Boris Johnson!

More news as we get it.

Mark Richardson  10 May 2013

Ping Pong is coming home

Bond meets the Queen (the “Is that? Not it can’t be, oh my God, it is!” moment starts at around 1 min 16 seconds)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AS-dCdYZbo (can’t embed this video unfortunately)