How to accelerate the prosecution of your UK patent application using the UK IPO Green Channel

The UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) has a number of ways in which an Applicant can accelerate the prosecution of their UK patent application, one of which is the “Green Channel” service. The UK IPO’s Green Channel service provides a way in which you can obtain accelerated search, examination and/or publication of your UK patent application if your invention has an environmental benefit.

Here, we explore why and how you might want to accelerate prosecution of your UK patent application using the UK IPO’s Green Channel service.

Why?

Renewable energy and sustainability are at the forefront of many people’s minds, with “green” technology evolving and changing at a very quick pace. It can therefore be of great importance to obtain patent protection for “green” technology as quickly and effectively as possible.

Accelerating the prosecution of a patent application using the Green Channel service could advance the process of obtaining a granted patent and may help secure investment or funding.

Accelerating the search and/or examination of the patent application could also provide the Applicant with the UK IPO’s opinion on the patentability of the invention early in the patenting process. This could help the Applicant decide whether to continue with the patent application process and/or file patent applications outside the UK.

Without acceleration, obtaining patent protection can be a lengthy process, with the UK IPO issuing a full examination report on the patentability of the patent application within an average of 42 months (3.5 years) from the priority date (Gov.UK).

How?

A request for acceleration using the Green Channel service can be made at any time while a patent application is pending, providing the request for acceleration is in writing and indicates:

• how the invention/ patent application has an environmental benefit; and
• which stage of the prosecution process the Applicant wants to accelerate.

The request can be made to accelerate different stages of prosecution, such as search, examination, combined search and examination, and publication of the application. There is no official fee for requesting acceleration using this service, but a service fee is likely to be incurred if you are using a patent attorney.

Within a few weeks of filing the request for acceleration under the Green Channel, the UK IPO should issue a letter either accepting or rejecting the request. If the request is successful, then a search and/or examination report should be issued promptly thereafter, typically within 1 to 2 months.

What is considered an invention that has an “environmental benefit”?

The Green Channel service is available if you can make a reasonable assertion that the invention has some “environmental benefit”. If, for example, the invention relates to a solar panel or solar energy, then a simple statement in a letter to show that the invention has an environmental benefit is likely to be enough. However, if the invention is related to, for example, a manufacturing method or process with fewer steps than known methods which results in using less energy, the request letter might require more explanation as to how the method or process is environmentally beneficial.

Preferably, in any case, the letter should reference parts of the patent application which disclose the benefit of the invention and how it could impact the environment in a positive way.

In 2022, the UK IPO received 496 requests for acceleration using the Green Channel (Gov.UK) Examples of published UK patent applications which were accelerated through the UK IPO’s Green Channel can be found on the link here.

As mentioned above, other acceleration channels are available at the UK IPO. If you are interested in accelerating the prosecution of your UK patent application, either through the Green Channel or other channels, please contact us to discuss your requirements with one of our attorneys.

Our attorneys are engineers and scientists who have direct experience of the renewable energy sector and we are keen to support clients in this growing and important area.