If you need a UK or European patent, we provide the expert, professional advice and representation you need. We can handle all aspects of drafting, filing prosecution, maintenance and grant before the UK Intellectual Property Office and the European Patent Office.
If you needs stretch further afield, we can also prepare, file and prosecute International Patent Applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty and handle national/regional phase entry directly in the UK and Europe and elsewhere via overseas attorneys.
At Hutchinson IP, we do IP differently. By breaking the whole process down into manageable chunks, we are able to provide, on the whole, fixed-fee professional services at each stage of the process.
We can either handle the entire prosecution from initial meeting to grant, or we can provide ad-hoc services and drafting assistance if you would prefer to keep costs down and/or retain responsibility for your applications. Either way, we’d be delighted to discuss the options with you without charge or obligation.
At Hutchinson IP we provide professional representation before the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), the European Patent Office (EPO), the Office for Harmonisation of the Internal Market (OHIM) in relation to (European) Community Designs and before the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) in relation to International (PCT) patent applications.
Unlike many firms, we offer value-added filing services, such as pre-filing re-drafting for compliance with local requirements and, in many cases, to substantially reduce the official fees. Please click here to find out more about this service.
There can often be strategic advantages to filing in the UKIPO or the EPO as opposed to certain other Intellectual Property Offices, such as: accelerated processing to facilitate use of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) scheme; reduced translation costs (if the application is filed and prosecuted in English); and up to a 100% refund of the European Search fee if the EPO is used as the International Searching Authority for a PCT application. At Hutchinson IP, we deliver strategic advice and recommendations to help clients obtain the maximum benefit from these provisions.
The UKIPO aims to return Search Reports within few months and it is possible to combine the Search with Substantive Examination to further accelerate the processing of a UK application. Accelerated processing is also available as of right in the UKIPO for patent applications relating to “green” technology. As such, it is often possible to obtain a Search and Examination Report within a few months of filing, i.e. well before the expiry of the priority year or PCT international phase, thereby enabling a more informed decision to be made when filing corresponding overseas applications or entering the national or regional phase.
A further advantage of a UKIPO application is that is possible to obtain a patent in certain overseas countries, including Hong Kong and Singapore, on the basis of a patent granted by the UKIPO, or to “extend” a granted UK patent to cover up to 40 further countries*.
Contact us directly to discuss your requirements.
*Anguilla, Antarctic, Antigua, Bahamas, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei, Cayman, Cyprus, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Gambia, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guernsey, Guyana, Isle of Man, Jersey, Kiribati, Malta, Montserrat, Nauru, Pitcairn, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Turks & Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Virgin Islands and Western Samoa.