Patent Law & Practice at a Glance – July 2025

UKIPO update

UK signs Riyadh Design Law Treaty

On 11 July, the UK government signed the Riyadh Design Law Treaty (RDLT), marking an important step towards international harmonisation of application processes for industrial design protection. The Treaty includes several commitments towards streamlining procedures before local intellectual property offices, provides more flexibility to applicants, and establishes a framework for the further development of design law. The Treaty is not yet in force and is still in the process of obtaining signatories and ratification, so there is no change for now. Nonetheless, the UK’s signing of the treaty marks an important step towards its implementation.

The announcement can be read here and an article by Chris Anderson about the RDLT and what it will mean for designers can be read here.

New consultation on standard essential patents

Recognising that standard essential patents (SEPs) are of growing importance to the UK economy, the UKIPO has launched a new consultation on SEPs. It aims to ensure the SEPs ecosystem functions effectively and continues to support UK innovation and creativity. 

Proposed changes to improve efficiency and transparency in SEP licensing include the introduction of a ‘Rate Determination Track’ (RDT) to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC). There is also a proposal to make the provision of information on patents disclosed as essential at standard development organisations mandatory in order to provide searchable standard related patent information.

More information about the consultation, as well as how to respond, is available here.

Facts and figures: filings and hearings in 2024

The UKIPO has published data and a report of the annual figures for applications and registrations of intellectual property registered rights during 2024. The number of applications to the UKIPO for trade marks increased between 2023 and 2024 by 5.8% to 173,180, while applications for patents and designs both decreased by 5.1% to 18,953 for patent applications and by 4.6% to 77,486 for designs.

The full report and data source are available here.

Monthly filing statistics: patents, trade marks and designs

The statistics for May 2025 are available here. Statistics for previous months can be found here.

UK-China IP

The UKIPO publishes a monthly newsletter targeted at UK stakeholders and including updates on recent developments in Chinese IP. The latest edition of this newsletter can be found here. 

Customer service standards

The latest update on how the UKIPO is doing relative to the targets it has set itself can be found here.

EPO update

PPH programme between the EPO and the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property

The European Patent Office and the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property have decided to extend the comprehensive Patent Prosecution Highway programme for a period of six months ending on 31 December 2025. Full details are available here.

EPO closed days

The EPO has announced its closed days for 2026. As a reminder, time limits expiring on a day on which at least one EPO filing office is not open for receipt of documents (closing days) are extended until the first day thereafter on which all the filing offices are open for receipt of documents and on which ordinary mail is delivered. The closed days are listed here.

Access to captured multimedia citations in the digital file in MyEPO

Information contained in publicly available online multimedia disclosures, such as audio or video clips, forms part of the state of the art within the meaning of Article 54(2) EPC and may therefore be cited in proceedings before the EPO. As of 1 July 2025, you can inspect all citations, including any online multimedia citations captured by the EPO, at any time throughout the proceedings by accessing the digital file of the European patent application or European patent concerned in MyEPO. Further details can be found here.

Reduction of the fees for the international search and the international preliminary examination

By a decision of 12 December 2019, the fees for the international search and the international preliminary examination carried out on international applications filed by nationals of certain states have been reduced. The EPO periodically updates the countries for which these reductions apply and, as of 1 July, Namibia has been added to the list and Cape Verde and Samoa have been removed from the list. The full list of countries for which fee reductions applies is available here.

PCT update

Ethiopia joins Paris Convention

On 15 May 2025, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (country code: ET) deposited its instrument of accession to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. Ethiopia will become bound by the Paris Convention on 15 August 2025. Click here (page 1) for further details.

Republic of Mauritius joins ARIPO

On 27 May 2025, the Republic of Mauritius deposited its instrument of accession to the Harare Protocol on Patents, Utility Models and Industrial Designs with the Framework of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO). Mauritius will become a member State of ARIPO with effect from 27 August 2025, and the Harare Protocol will enter into force with respect to Mauritius on that date.

This means that any international application filed on or after 27 August 2025 will include the designation of Mauritius for an ARIPO patent, as well as for a national patent. Click here (pages 1 to 2) for further details.

Amendments to the PCT Regulations

The following amendments entered into force on 1 July 2025:

1. Amendments to PCT Rule 89bis.1 to allow receiving offices to no longer accept paper filings with the option to allow paper submissions in exceptional circumstances for the purposes of obtaining a filing date or meeting a time limit but requiring an electronic resubmission of the documents within two months. The International Bureau as receiving office will be obliged to continue accepting paper filings.

2. Amendments to PCT Rule 92 to allow the International Bureau to communicate with offices and applicants in languages beyond English and French as currently required.

3. Amendments to PCT Rule 26.3ter requiring applicants to submit a translation where the abstract and/or text matter of drawings is filed in a language different from the language in which the international application will be published, but in a language accepted by the International Searching Authority.

A PowerPoint presentation showing the amendments made to the PCT Regulations is available here. Click here (page 2) for further details.

Modifications

With effect from 1 July 2025, Sections 703 and 705 of the Administrative Instructions under the PCT, The PCT Receiving Office Guidelines and the PCT International Search and Preliminary Examination (ISPE) Guidelines, have been modified. Click here (pages 2 and 3) for further details.

PCT statistics 2025

The 2025 edition of the PCT Yearly Review summarises PCT activities and developments in 2024. It contains a comprehensive set of statistics relating to PCT filings and the performance of the international patent system in 2024 (including filings by top countries of origin, by top applicants and by technological fields, as well as statistics on participation of female inventors in PCT applications). It also contains statistics relating to national phase entries in 2023 (the latest available year). Click here (page 4) for further details.

Change of banking details

The bank name and account details of WIPO’s bank accounts to which payments can be made by bank transfer (for payment in Swiss francs, US dollars or euros) changed on 1 July 2025. Click here (page 5) for further details.

Practical advice: national phase requirements where the application to which priority is claimed was assigned before the international filing date

The following question is answered: When preparing for the national phase, I noticed that the national law of the designated Office requires certified assignment documents when the applicant claims priority to an earlier application filed by a different applicant due to an assignment. Given that this is a PCT national phase application rather than a direct national filing, am I required to furnish such certified documents? Click here (pages 10 and 11) to view the detailed response.

Other useful links

The PCT seminar, webinar and event calendar can be found here (pages 12 and 13).

The PCT fee tables (as of 1 June 2025) can be found here (pages 14 to 22).

A list of PCT Contracting States and Two-Letter Country Codes (as of 1 June 2025) can be found here (page 23).