UK green inventions to get fast-tracked through patent system

17 July 2009

In line with the UK Government’s Green agenda, David Lammy, the Minister of State for Education and Intellectual Property, has devised a new incentive scheme for cleantech development, writes David Knight, a partner at law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse.

At the launch of this initiative on 12 May 2009, David Lammy said, ‘Climate change affects us all and any actions we take now to improve low-carbon technology has got to be positive for both the environment and our future economic competitiveness.’

The scheme is designed to boost environmentally friendly technology, as well as offering jobs for the future by allowing patents relating to green technology to be fast-tracked.

Typical patent applications take on average two to three years from filing to grant. This long lead-time is unsurprising considering that the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) receives around 23,500 patent applications per week. In the past decade, the number of green technology patent applications has increased by 500 per cent and currently represent approximately 150-200 applications per week.

Any patent application with a Green or CleanTech element can now be fast-tracked and the scheme applies both to applications made from 12 May 2009 and retrospectively. It is intended that this new scheme will see CleanTech patents granted in less than nine months from their application date.

Applicants must apply in writing and make a ‘reasonable assertion’ of some ‘environmental benefit’ to the invention. However, there is currently no definition of what these terms mean and no indication as to what criteria the IPO will apply to determine whether the claim that the application relates to green technology is justified, nor how much information the application must provide. As it stands, the scope of the new fast-track procedure could be very wide.

Fast-tracking for cleantech applications is not automatic – applicants must stipulate that they would like their application to be considered for the ‘Green Channel’. The applicant must also specify which of the following actions they want to accelerate: search; combined search and examination; publication; and/or examination.

Faster processing will obviously mean faster protection from potential infringers. This acceleration is also beneficial to companies investing in green technology as it will reduce uncertainty and risk to those investing. The anticipated corollary of this is that these technologies, and therefore the companies pioneering them, will attract more investment. This is a factor that small and medium companies, without the research and development muscle of larger companies, will be especially interested in.

The expectation is that consumers, and therefore the economy, should also benefit from products reaching the market sooner.

While there are many commercial benefits of the new scheme, organisations must consider potential drawbacks too. A company may not want its invention brought into the public domain quickly, instead preferring to spend time developing the idea and technology in order to maximise potential economic return and plan its commercial strategy.

In addition, accessing that fast-track option will bring forward patent filing costs. Thus the accelerated process could prove to be an expensive option for a company who might find a more paced patent prosecution process easier to manage financially.

Therefore, a company must consider its own priorities when contemplating opting for the ‘Green Channel’ and deciding what strategy to take. However, for many the scheme will be very attractive and seems very much a win-win initiative commercially, as well as for the environment, consumers and the government.

This story was published on Friday, July 17th, 2009 at 2:36 pm and is filed under knowledge. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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