Liberalising Address for Service (AFS) Requirements for Patents, Trade Marks and Registered Designs.
In October 2003 the UK Patent Office (UKPO) published a consultation document inviting views on a proposal to liberalise address for service (AFS) requirements for patents, trade marks and registered designs, and consequential changes to postal service regulations. Now, the UKPO proposes:
to make no unilateral changes to the AFS rules, but support the liberalisation of AFS across the EU;
to seek the abolition of the postal deeming rules for patents and registered designs;
to extend the provisions relating to postal delay, to cover undue delays to any means of communication and to delays anywhere within the EU; and
to amend the postal interruption provisions so that only those communications affected by the interruption would qualify for extended time limits.
I ask myself whether such initiative would also include an EU-wide attempt to abolish the German mandatory requirement of professional representation before the German Patent and Trade Mark Office for applicants not seated on German territory.
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Dipl.-Phys. Axel H Horns is Patentanwalt (German Patent Attorney),
European Patent Attorney as well as European Trade Mark Attorney. In particular, he is Member of:
UK Patent Office (UKPO) published a consultation document inviting views on a proposal to liberalise address for service (AFS) requirements for patents, trade marks and registered designs, and consequential changes to postal service regulations. Now, the UKPO 
