Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many applications for a patent lodged at the Intellectual Property Office have been pending a decision for over (a) two, (b) three and (c) 4 years.
The number of patent applications which have been pending a decision for over two, three and four years are:
(a) Over two years: 8233
(b) Over three years: 3863
(c) Over four years: 1241
The IPO has a Ministerial Target, offering faster handling of patent applications by providing an examination report with a search report when both are requested at the application date, and meeting at least 90% of requests for an accelerated two-month turnaround for search, publication and examination. All requests to receive the search and examination reports together are acceded to; and 97% of all accelerated examination requests have been completed within 2 months of request for the current financial year.