The UK-IPO: trendy but pointless?
The IPKat has just noticed an amusing quote in a recent case that may have passed many of his readers by. In EI Du Pont Nemours & Co v United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office [2009] EWCA Civ 966, dated 17 September 2009 but only recently made publicly available (see the SPC blog for more), the Honourable Lord Justice Jacob writes:"Under the SPC scheme an SPC has to be applied for in each Member State where it is wanted – there is no central scheme. Quite why, I do not know. In this country the application is made to the Patent Office (which now goes by the trendy but pointless "operating name" of "UK Intellectual Property Office")" (paragraph 3).
As should be clear to anyone who tends to read the small print first, the UK-IPO is only an outward facade for what is officially still known as the Patent Office. If we are going to be proper about it, the Office should still be identified by the 'old' name, as that is what the law says it is called. Does the new name, which has now been firmly established in the minds of most people, really make any difference or is it a bit pointless? Does anybody at all think that the name is even trendy?
