News

UK peer to patent trial

The UK Intellectual Property Office is to trial a peer to patent project, where the examination process is opened up to outside parties. Similar pilot projects are currently running in the US and Australia.

The pilot project is part of a six-month independent review of the intellectual property system in the UK, which has been announced by the Government.

Dr Anna Molony explained: “The peer to patent concept means that anyone can review a patent application and send in documents they believe are relevant to the novelty or inventiveness of an invention. In this pilot project, the UK Intellectual Property Office is selecting which applications to include. Peers can then submit prior art documents and comment on why they are relevant.”

She added: “Only documents that receive a lot of comments supporting their relevance will be forwarded to examiners to look at when examining the application. It’s interesting, because if it goes live – and I expect it will do after the completed pilot trial – it will bring about another, potentially low-cost route for competitors to attack an application. It implies that individuals simply need to gather people to support their assertion that a particular document is relevant. This represents a potential risk for applicants and we’ll be keeping a close eye on developments.”

For more information, please contact Dr Anna Molony.