UK Patent Office Goes Electronic

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

29 June 2006

The UK's Patent Office announced on Monday that it is launching a new Patents Electronic Casefile System (PECS) based around the European Patent Office’s PHOENIX system.

The PECS system is designed to complement the Patent Office’s existing electronic filing provision, which uses the epoline system, and various electronic search and document-production tools.

According to the Patent Office, all new patent applications filed on paper will be scanned into the PHOENIX database and processed electronically. Once a successful transition from processing paper to electronic applications has taken place for new filings, the Patent Office will begin to digitise its existing paper casefiles.

These electronic casefiles will be more readily accessible than the current paper files and will, in the medium term, enable the Patent Office to offer the public new services, such as online file inspection, which will be a major benefit for customers.

Director of Patents, Sean Dennehey, observed that:

"This is one of the most far-reaching changes to the processing of patents in the UK for over 100 years. Paper casefiles have always been at the heart of how we work; that changes today. PECS enables true e-processing of UK patent applications, and provides the basis for more efficient working and new customer services."

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