One IPO update – March 2026

James Porter, Acting Deputy Chief Executive Officer, UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO), has provided CIPA with the following update on plans to launch a new digital patents service on 1 April:

The launch of the new patents service is fast approaching. To support you through the change, I want to remind you of what will happen when the service launches, what’s happening with our legacy services, an update on publication and what’s next.

The key points are:

• Our new patents service is expected to launch to the public on 1 April.
• From 1 April you will no longer be able to apply for a UK patent via eOLF.
• You will still be able to use the new patents service, Web Filing and [email protected] beyond 1 April.
• Patents publication is almost back to normal.
• Our digital services will be unavailable from 6pm on 31 March to midday on 1 April as we undertake essential maintenance – you can still use [email protected].

Launch

We remain on track to launch our new patents service to the public on 1 April 2026. This means that we will be opening up the service for everyone to use when applying for, managing or renewing patents.

On launch day, the web pages that you use to access our services will be updated with information on the new service, and links to access it or create your own account.

If you want to use the new service, this is what you need to know:

• If you’ve already got your own account set-up and you’re using the service, nothing changes. You’re all set.
• If you don’t have your own account set-up yet, but somebody else in your organisation does, you should ask them how to get access. You should not create a new account on GOV.UK.
• If you’re not sure if anyone in your organisation has an account yet, you should email [email protected] and they will advise you on next steps. You should not create a new account on GOV.UK.

We’re continuing to publish more guidance, in particular through our library of video demonstrations of the new service and the IPO blog.

Legacy services

In the future, we will be retiring our existing (‘legacy’) services. During the transition period, you can submit requests to the IPO in the following ways:

1. You can apply for, manage or renew patents using our new digital services – this is the simplest and quickest way to work with us.
2. You can continue to submit patent applications using our Web Filing service until at least summer 2026. We’ll give you at least three months’ notice before removing it.
3. You can continue to submit patent applications via [email protected] and request an extension of a deadline via [email protected] until at least summer 2026. We’ll give you at least three months’ notice before removing these email addresses.
4. You will be able to withdraw patent applications via [email protected] and there are no plans to change this.

As a reminder, from 1 April 2026 UK patent applications can no longer be submitted via the European Patent Office’s Electronic Online Filing (eOLF) service. This service stopped receiving technical support from the European Patent Office on 1 January 2026 as part of the decommissioning process.

Publication

Over the last few months, we have been addressing a reduction in patent publications as we transitioned to the new digital service. I am pleased to report that these issues have now largely been resolved.

We are now publishing 350 patents per week via the One IPO system in addition to 50 via the legacy service. This is a further increase of 133% since our February update.

We are on track to be publishing 400 patents per week via One IPO by the end of March, which is our normal capacity. In addition, the backlog of patents due to be published has more than halved since January.

There is likely to be a brief reduction in the number of patents we publish over Easter in line with our normal practice, but this will pick up again after Easter.

Fees

While not related to these latest changes, I am taking this chance to remind you that, on 1 April, we will also be increasing our fees for the first time since 2018.

In order to make these changes, IPO’s services will be down from 6pm on Tuesday 31 March to midday on Wednesday 1 April. These will include eOLF, Web Filing, Renewals and the new service.

You will still be able to file using [email protected] during this time. You can stay up to date on service maintenance on Gov.UK.

You can find out more information about our fee changes on our website.

Looking ahead

Our new patents services will bring a much-needed improvement, taking us from a paper-based system to a modern, digital way of working. They bring a fundamental shift in how our patents services work for you, our wider users and our staff. Making that shift has been, and continues to be, challenging both for the IPO and our customers.

While the public launch of our new patents services is an important milestone, it’s just the next step in a long process of transforming our services. We are committed to expanding and improving these services in the weeks, months and years to come and have a dedicated team in place to do this. I am proud of the hard work that has been done over a long time to reach this key point, and we will continue to work hard to improve the new services.

We have already published a roadmap of planned improvements that we’ll be rolling out over the next 12 months, and delivered several of the updates we promised ahead of launch.

On behalf of Deputy CEO Andy Bartlett (who usually sends these updates and is out of the IPO at short notice) and the whole of the IPO, I want to take this opportunity thank all of the customers who have played such an important role in helping us develop, test and improve what we have built so far.  We’ll continue to work with you as we move forward with the new services.

James Porter
Acting Deputy CEO

Date published: 25 March 2026