Lord Triesman announces a new Fast–Track Trade Mark service

Today Lord Triesman, Intellectual Property and Quality Minister announced a new fast track service for trade mark applications. The new service will be launched in April 2008 and cost users an additional £300.

Lord Triesman said:

"The UK must be a world leader in innovation and enterprise. So it needs new services empowering business to protect their intellectual property. These services must be fast but thorough and effective. Today we announce just such a service for Trade Marks."

Ian Fletcher, Chief Executive of the UK Intellectual Property Office said:

"This will help us turn around trade mark applications more quickly while still providing our customers with a very high quality service. We also want to look at other ways of speeding up the process for registering trade marks."

The new fast track trade mark service will be launched on 6 April 2008 following a comprehensive period of consultation with stakeholders.

Notes to editor:

• The Consultation for the Fast track processing of Trade Marks (285Kb) was launched 21 September and closed on 14 December 2007.
• Andrew Gowers undertook a review of Intellectual Property in 2005 and reported his findings to the Government in December 2006. He identified a number of areas where improvements could be made. The Government committed to taking the recommendations forward. The full review can be viewed at The HM Treasury website .
• The UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) has published the Response Document (professional section) to that consultation which closed in December 2007.
• For enquiries about the UK Intellectual Property Office press or media activities please contact the Communications Team on 01633 814305.

Date of release: 14 January 2008