UK Intellectual Property Office has published its 100th patent opinion

25 November 2009

UK Intellectual Property Office has published its 100th patent opinion

Corinne Day

Patent opinions provided by the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) are designed to resolve patent disputes between parties before those parties become tied up in costly and lengthy patent litigation proceedings.

An opinion, prepared by a senior examiner at the UK IPO, will provide parties involved in the dispute with an unbiased (and unbinding) assessment of the issues at hand. Opinions most commonly address issues of patent validity and / or whether a patent has been infringed. A patent opinion costs 200 GBP and takes no more than 3 months to prepare.

The 100th opinion was requested by Dyson regarding the validity of a patent for cyclonic vacuum cleaners owned by Samsung, one of its competitors. The senior examiner concluded that the claims of Samsung's patent were invalid.

For further information on patent opinions, visit the UK IPO website.

Corinne Day is a trainee solicitor who specialises in intellectual property law. She can be contacted via e-mail on corinne.day@lawdit.co.uk