Practice notes

Practice notes to help registered attorneys understand their rights and obligations.

What are practice notes?

The Board and the Designated Manager regularly publish practice notes to help support registered attorneys to understand their rights and obligations.

These practice notes may change from time to time.

Practice notes to date

To date, practice notes have been issued on:

• Annual audits of compliance with statutory continuing professional education
• Proper maintenance of files
• Copyright in patent specifications.

Continuing Professional Education Audit reports

Trade marks and patent attorneys are audited for compliance with the statutory continuing professional education (CPE) requirements set out in the Patents Regulations 1991 and the Trade Marks Regulations 1995. These audits are completed by the Designated Manager on an annual basis.

You can download CPE Audit reports since 2019-20 below.

Ownership of files

This practice note was published to advise registered attorneys how to maintain files in such a manner that the client’s property can be readily identified. This supports attorneys to comply with requests for delivery of the client's property promptly.

Copyright in patent specifications

This practice note was published to to help registered attorneys understand their rights and obligations regarding patent specifications, particularly those prepared for provisional applications. It will facilitate protection of a client's invention in a reasonable timeframe and at a reasonable cost to the client.