Sustainability, efficiency and creating a world-leading IP office all feature in the priorities for the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) in its recently published strategic direction.
The UK IPO plays a critical role at the centre of the IP ecosystem, and they are central to the UK maintaining its position as a world-leading IP environment.
In order to deliver on this, it has recently published updated information on its refreshed corporate strategy to 2026 and its strategic priorities for 2022-2023.
The overall strategic ambition for the IPO is still to ensure that it supports and encourages researchers, inventors, creators, businesses, and organisations to pursue innovation.
The updated strategy discusses how it will deliver on this ambition with three main aims:
- Deliver excellent IP services
- Create a world-leading IP environment
- Make the IPO a brilliant place to work
These ambitions are underpinned by the IPO’s principles which are to “support our people, focus on customers and strive for efficiency.”
Within the detail of the priorities are clear areas of focus for the IPO in the short and medium-term.
Delivering on the ongoing transformation programme will see the IPO build a more user-friendly and digital service supporting the delivery of its customer service standards
The IP environment in the UK will continue to be modernised to keep up with society and digital changes whilst increasing the level of awareness and education about IP and its potential for impact. The approach described in the Counter-Infringement Strategy will be further embedded as well as the development of an intelligence centre of excellence.
The UK’s position both with the EU and internationally will continue to be strengthened via free trade agreements and the promotion of the international IP business support service.
Within the IPO itself, the focus will be on sustainability namely the development of a carbon net-zero strategy and how, as a workplace, the IPO can support its people to thrive both now and in the future.
In summary, these updated priorities help to provide a direction of travel for the IPO and how it is supporting the wider industry to continue to invest and benefit from innovation and new technological developments.
