Fast Track

6 February 2008

By Jody Tsigarides

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.

Jody Tsigarides is a trainee solicitor who specialises in intellectual property law and in particular, trade mark law. technology law and intellectual property law.