Committee Updates – July 2026
Committee Updates, Member News
28 July 2026
Update 11 June 2026: The UK IPO brought its digital patents service back online late yesterday (10 June).
The Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) has confirmed that it has identified the cause of the issue that led to the temporary suspension of its new patents service on Friday evening and expects a permanent fix to be implemented within the next 24–48 hours.
The service was taken offline after the UK IPO identified an incident in which one user was able to view a document submitted from another user’s draft request. The UK IPO stated that it took the service offline as a precaution while investigations were carried out.
The UK IPO’s investigation has concluded that this was an isolated incident affecting a single customer transaction. Following extensive testing, no further occurrences have been identified.
Once the fix has been implemented, the service will be brought back online. A further update is expected by tomorrow morning at the latest.
CIPA has been in regular contact with the UK IPO throughout the incident and will continue to engage with the Office as the situation develops.
Lee Davies, Chief Executive of CIPA, said:
“We welcome the IPO’s swift investigation into this issue and its commitment to restoring the service as quickly as possible. This issue does reinforce the importance to the profession of the UK IPO retaining contingency filing channels.”
While the new patents service remains unavailable, users can continue to:
- Submit applications using the IPO’s Web Filing service
- Email forms to [email protected]
- Renew patents using the legacy renewals service
The UK IPO has apologised for the disruption caused and stated that it will continue to take all necessary precautions to protect users’ data.
For queries relating to the incident, contact the UK IPO at [email protected].
CIPA has a Digital Transformation Task Force, run by our Patents Committee, to collate members’ problems with the new digital patents service and pass these to the IPO. Please email any issues to [email protected].
Date published: 9 June 2026
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