The Patent and Design Journal 6085 - Intellectual Property Office

4 January 2006 Patents and Designs Journal No. 6085 xiii
Regular Notices - cont
Filing dates
8. The filing date accorded is the date of receipt of the complete fax if the office is
open for the class of documents, or if not, the next working day.
9. Where a fee is due for a transaction at the time of filing, the filing date will be as in
paragraph 8 above, or the date on which sufficient funds are available in the deposit
account (see paragraph 10) or the fee is otherwise paid, whichever is the later.
10. With the exception of trade mark applications, UK legislation does not allow the
Patent Office to accord a filing date to a document unless we receive any
associated fees at the same time. To help them meet this requirement, customers
may open and fund a deposit account with the Patent office against which we will
charge the appropriate fees. Deposit account terms and conditions are available on
request.
Fax-back Service
11. Documents filed by fax to the number given in paragraph 3 are checked, upon
receipt, for legibility and to ensure that the number of pages specified on the fax
header is the number received. No appraisal is made of them until they are
examined in the normal course of business.
12. Facsimile machines will generally tell the sender whether the transmission has been
completed; but transmission may involve a risk and the customer may want
assurance that the documents received by the Patent Office are correct and legible.
13. With this in mind, we offer to deposit account holders and customers paying by
credit/debit card a fax-back service of the entire transmission to any destination in
the UK, for a charge of £25( Pounds Sterling) per transmission. Fax-back to locations
outside the UK can also be provided by prior arrangement. Customers requiring the
fax-back service must indicate this on the fee sheet.
14. The fax-back service is available for documents filed by fax to the number given in
paragraph 3 from Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays) between 9.00 and
21.00 (UK time). Transmissions received outside these hours will be faxed back as
soon as the Patent Office re-opens for business. With this proviso, the Office will
endeavour to fax back within 30 minutes of receipt.
Caveat
15. Customers should note that the facsimile services do not offer an infallible means of
transmission. Interception of data, or misdirection due to operator or technical error
is possible. Documents which the customer believes might include information of
relevance to national defence and security must not be filed by fax; and others are
faxed at the customer`s risk, although every effort will of course be made to ensure
an efficient and accurate service.