Applicants typically wait 570 days before any action is taken by the UK patent office, reveals analysis of World Intellectual Property Organisation data.

This lengthy waiting period places the UK 50th out of the 64 countries studied.

The examination process for a patent application differs in each jurisdiction, but generally involves determining whether the claimed innovation is novel, not obvious, and industrially applicable.

It takes China, which has the highest number of patent applications in the world, just over a year (375 days) for its patent office to take action. The United States, which has the second-highest number of applications, takes marginally less time than the UK at 507 days.

Brazil is the only country receiving more patent applications than the UK to take a longer amount of time to respond.

Lithuania takes the shortest amount of time to respond to applications, with waits of just 12 days. Similarly, Spain takes 19 days, though both countries receive significantly less applications, with 90 and 1,434 apiece.

Although the UK still ranks poorly for time taken to respond to patent applications, most recent figures show an improvement from 2020. It took the patent office 750 days on average to respond during that year – the longest amount of time applicants have had to wait since UK data started being collected in 2016.

Meanwhile, HMRC data shows uptake of the Patent Box, a form of tax relief available to companies that make profits from exploiting patented inventions, remains low. Despite more than 89,000 Research and Development (R&D) tax relief claims being made in 2020/2133, projections suggest that 1,535 companies made the Patent Box claims over the same period4. Yet many companies embarking on R&D will also be making innovations that are capable of being patented.

Nigel Holmes, Director of Tax at innovation funding specialist Catax, said:

“The UK is rightly proud of its innovation heritage, but it is important that the systems dedicated to protecting intellectual property are world-leading too.

“Patent law is complex and the process can be very involved, but UK performance is poor when compared to countries that deal with a greater number of applications.

“Speeding up this process will prove the UK is walking the talk on delivering innovation-led growth.

“It is also important that companies embarking on innovation understand the patent process and the associated tax reliefs by receiving specialist advice from the outset.

“The cost of obtaining a UK patent could easily be outweighed by the tax reduction from a Patent Box claim which creates an effective rate of Corporation tax of only 10%, yet not enough companies are making patents and the Patent Box an essential part of their innovation strategy.”