e-Filing of Design applications now available

The Patents Office is pleased to announce the launch of our new designs e-filing facility. This new development, which is similar in look and feel to our highly successful trade mark e-filing system introduced in 2014, will facilitate the filing of all design applications on-line via our website.

This is the latest addition to the suite of interactive online systems which the Office has implemented to facilitate the needs of business and end users of our services. These systems facilitate the online searching of national patent and trade mark databases and registers and provide for the online searching of the Office’s Official Journal together with the online payment of a range of statutory fees. Links are also provided that allow the quick searching of European patent, trade mark and design registers and databases of the EPO, OHIM and WIPO.

The introduction of electronic filing of design applications will allow for greater efficiency on the part of applicants for design registration and will facilitate a speedier and more effective paperless processing of applications by the Office.

The Office’s new e-filing system introduces an easy to navigate application form and makes provision for the uploading of design representations in Jpeg format. The e-filing functionality also facilitates the electronic payment of the application fee by credit or debit card.

Automatic error checking helps ensure that users input the correct data, a fee counter provides information on the cost of the application and the submission process is straightforward and results in an online confirmation receipt that includes a provisional application number which can be printed or saved.

The Office would like to acknowledge the assistance of the Office for Harmonisation of the Internal Market (OHIM) in developing and implementing the new system. The e-filing project was developed under the OHIM’s Co-operation Fund which is designed to promote further harmonisation, modernise national IP offices, and make things easier for users of the European trade mark and design systems. The Fund has already assisted the Office in developing and implementing the TMview, TMclass and DesignView projects in addition to the e-filing of trade mark applications and work will continue during 2016 with the development and implementation of an e-Services project that will that will allow clients to initiate the payment of an enhanced range of fees online.