Your questions answered

What constitutes a series mark when filing for trade mark registration?

Marks comprising a series are acceptable if they are substantially the same. In the example below the mark applied for clearly consists of two separate words.

Mark Applied for: "Trade Mark"

Series:

TradeMark
trademark
TRADEMARK

The same applies to the mark where the capitalisation of the second word makes it clear that the mark is really one word even though they are conjoined.

Different considerations apply to the remaining two marks where the two words are not separated but are in the same type case i.e. one in lower case throughout and one in upper case.

When examining such marks the examiner must decide if the two words "separate naturally".

To do this the examiner will consider how the average consumer of the goods and/or services in question will perceive the marks. If they will all be perceived as the two words you quote as a trade mark then they will form a series, if not then an objection would be raised although there are ways to overcome such an objection.

Can I inspect a patent file on-line?

The Intellectual Property Office's patent document and information service contains all of the information currently contained in the Patent Status Enquiry, as well as a forms log, citation, classification and field of search information. Copies of some documents from the open part of the file are also available.

The following documents from the open part of the file are available for GB patent applications published after 1 January 2008 (i.e. from GB2439518):

  • Abstracts
  • Claims
  • Descriptions
  • Drawings
  • Examination reports
  • External search reports
  • PCT Forms and Documents
  • Most correspondence sent by the IPO after 1 November 2010
  • A & B specifications (including some published before 1 January 2008)

Documents not available on Ipsum

  • Documents or information which are not part of the open file (for example because they are confidential) or which cannot be put online for legal reasons (for example data protection).
  • Documents related to EP(UK) patents
  • Non patent literature
  • Letters relating to purely administrative matters, for example negotiating hearing dates
  • Documents for cases which have been destroyed as part of the IPO's Retention and Disposal Policy PDF document(76Kb)

Ipsum is a new service being offered by the Intellectual Property Office. This is an interim version of the service and we intend to launch the full service, including more documents, in October 2011.