GovWire

Transparency data: IPO customer service standards

Intellectual Property Office

January 19
07:54 2024

Intellectual Property Office corporate priorities 2023 to 2024

Details

We are currently meeting, or exceeding, many of our customer service standards. However, unprecedented demand continues to impact timescales in some areas. We are working hard to address any delays by recruiting and training additional staff and improving the efficiency of our processes.

More detail about our activities can be found in our Corporate Priorities.

Service Standard November 2023
performance
December 2023
performance
Information Centre
We will answer telephone calls to the Information Centre within 60 seconds. We will respond to all written enquiries within 5 working days (measurement excludes enquiries transferred to specialist teams for a direct response).
Calls
99% in 60 secs

Emails
100% in 5 days
Calls
98% in 60 secs

Emails
100% in 5 days
Trade Mark and Designs Examination
We will issue the first report on trade mark and designs domestic and international cases within 2 weeks (10 working days) from the date it is ready to be examined. An application is ready to be examined once it has been filed with us and we have issued a filing receipt.
Trade Marks:
90% completed in 9 working days


International Trade Marks:
90% completed in 11 working days

Designs:
90% completed in 9 working days

International designs:
90% completed in 9 working days
Trade Marks:
90% completed in 10 working days

International Trade Marks:
90% completed in 9 working days

Designs:
90% completed in 9 working days

International designs:
90% completed in 8 working days
Patents Preliminary Examination
Assessment of procedural and non-technical aspects of a patent application. We will complete all preliminary examinations within 4 weeks (20 working days) of the applications filing date.
98% issued within 4 weeks 97% issued within 4 weeks
Patent Search
We will issue search reports within 6 months from request.
90% completed in 6 months and 7 days 90% completed in 6 months and 9 days
Patent Examination
Full substantive examination of legal and technical aspects of a patent application.
We will perform patent examinations within 3.5 years [42 months] of the priority date.
90% completed in 46 months and 29 days 90% completed in 45 months and 9 days
Patent Acceleration
We will deal with all requests for accelerated processing within 2 months of receipt.
92% within 2 months 92% within 2 months
Hearing Decisions
We will issue a hearings report: within 2 weeks (10 working days) of a trade mark or design ex parte hearing, and/or we will issue formal decisions in trade mark, design and patent cases (ex parte and inter partes) within 12 weeks of the hearing. If no hearing takes place the decision will be issued within 12 weeks of all submissions being filed or the deadline date.

Example of differences between ex parte and inter partes hearings.
Average time to issue hearing report:
1 week (6 working days)


Average time to issue decision:
17 weeks and 3 days (86 working days)
Average time to issue hearing report:
1 week (5 working days)

Average time to issue decision:
19 weeks and 4 days (97 working days)
Register Requests
We will action requests to correct names and addresses and record registrable transactions (such as a change of owner) within 2 weeks (10 working days) of receipt.
Patents:
3 days (3 working day)


Trade Marks and Designs:
1 week and 1 day (6 working days)
Patents:
1 week and 5 days (5 working day)

Trade Marks and Designs:
2 weeks (7 working days)
Customer Satisfaction
Average overall satisfaction with the IPO of 85% Customer satisfaction is not measured on a monthly basis. The figure reflects performance in our most recent customer survey.
87% [Q2 2023-24] 87% [Q2 2023-24]
Published 9 July 2014
Last updated 19 January 2024 +show all updates
  1. December 2023 performance review added.

  2. November 2023 performance review added.

  3. Updated customer service standards for September and October 2023.

  4. Customer performance for September 2023 added.

  5. August 2023 performance rating added.

  6. Performance for July 2023 added.

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