Quicklinks & Glossary for ‘A’

Abandonment: By not replying to an official deadline, a patent application will be treated by the UKIPO as abandoned. This may be intentional, for example, if the applicant is no longer interested in commercialising the product or process to which the application relates, or it may be accidental. If accidental, it may be possible in limited circumstances to revive the application and continue with prosecution.

Acts of Infringement: If you have a granted patent, and somebody uses that invention, then that person is infringing your patent and you are entitled to take Court action to stop them. See – Infringement.

Abstract: An abstract is a summary of the patent description primarily used for searching purposes by patent offices around the world.  Typically it includes the technical field of the invention and an indication of how the invention works.

Accelerated Prosecution: Accelerated Prosecution is the process of accelerating the progress of a patent application through the patent office to achieve an earlier grant date.

Added Matter: Added matter is subject matter added to an application beyond that originally in the application and generally has to be removed. No new subject matter can be added to a patent application, once filed.

Amendment: An amendment is the process of making changes to your patent application in order to meet patent office objections. However, an amendment can usually only relate to material that is already in the patent specification. No new or added matter can be included as part of an amendment.

Annuity: An annuity (also known as an Annuity Fee, Renewal Fee or Maintenance Fee) is an official Government fee payable to the relevant Patent Office to keep a Patent, Registered Design and Trademark in force. An annuity is usually payable annually. Albright Patents LLP provides a very cost-effective world-wide annuity payment service, which includes sending of reminders when the annuity becomes due and payment of the annuity on your behalf.

Appeal: 

Application Fee: The application fee is also known as a filing fee. When filing a UK patent application or a European patent application, a filing fee is due. In the case of the UK patent application, this can be paid within 12 months of the earliest filing date. However, the UK official search will not be undertaken until the filing fee is paid. We would recommend paying the application / filing fee when filing the patent application so that the official search can proceed as soon as possible (since this takes around 4 months to be returned). As for a US patent application, the USPTO official fee for filing a provisional patent application is significantly lower than the fee required to file a standard non-provisional patent application.

Applicant: The applicant is the person or company that legally owns a patent, trade mark or design registration (or application). The applicant, if an individual, may be the same as the inventor. If the applicant is a company, then the inventor may be an employee or director and this is how the company is entitled to use the invention.

Arbitration: 

Assignment: This is a legal agreement transferring one or more intellectual property rights from one person (or company) to another. Assignments are used to sell, amongst other things, patents, registered designs and trademarks.

Attorney (patent): See - Patent Attorney.

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