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Monday, October 03, 2005

New Patent Litigation Opinions Service Launched by UK-PTO.

From the

website of the UK-PTO:

"[...] The Patent Office launches its new opinions service tomorrow (1 October 2005), a ground-breaking procedure which allows anyone to ask the Patent Office for an expert opinion on an issue of patent infringement or validity.

The service is designed to help businesses or individuals who are (or may become) involved in a dispute over patents - giving them a basis for negotiation. [...]"

According to the UK-PTO, anyone may request an opinion on any UK patent, or European patent which designates the UK. The fee is GBP 200. After the request is filed, there is a short period for anyone to make observations on the request, and for the requester and patentee to make observations in reply. The opinion will be written and issued by a senior patent examiner, who will consider the arguments set out in the request, as well as any observations filed.

So, it appears as if the Opinion process will be advertised, and the patent bearer gets first-hand knowledge of the fact that someone wants to assess the risk of patent infringement. This is not as discreet as requesting a private Opinion e.g. from a patent attorney.

Moreover, the UK-PTO will need to make sure that the senior patent examiners in question get some additional training in patent law concerning patent infringement matters because of such cases haven't normally been processed by them in the past.

For details see

here; in particular, there is a

FAQ

I'm quite curious to learn the first annual statistics of the Office reporting the utilisation of this new service.

(Link thanks to

Patently-O: Patent Law Blog by Mr. Dennis Crouch)

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