The UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is no longer accepting paper forms, faxes and correspondence, it has been revealed.
The change comes as a result of the department’s social distancing measures, which will see staff work from home.
According to the office, paper documents can no longer be processed due to officials working remotely, meaning customers should exclusively use online services and “communicate digitally whenever possible”.
Commenting on the change, the IPO said: “If customers file paperwork with us by post, these documents will not be processed until normal services are resumed and our sites re-open. At this point they will be given the date of receipt as a provisional filing date.”
Where digital services are not currently available, the IPO has advised customers to direct enquiries to its new email address: paperformcontingency@ipo.gov.uk.
The department added that it will accept electronic signatures on forms and other documents.
The notice comes after the IPO officially declared the period after 24 March 2020 as “interrupted days” until further notice. It means that any deadlines for patents, supplementary protection certificates, trade marks, designs, and applications for these rights which fall on an interrupted day will be extended to the next non-interrupted day.
The interrupted period will be reviewed on 17 April 2020, after which date the interruption period will be continued or cease after a further two weeks.
“We are taking this action in view of the disruption to applicants’ businesses and ability to receive and send post by the current coronavirus pandemic. It is consistent with action taken by other intellectual property offices such as the European Patent Office and the European Union Intellectual Property Office,” said the IPO.
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