Wednesday 20 February 2008

The Joys of E-Filing the UK Way


The profession is impatiently waiting for the new and improved electronic trademark filing system. One member, who was suffering posted this to the group:


I tried to file on on-line trade mark application yesterday evening, having failed to do it from the office because our firewall seems to be set so as to prohibit access to anything you might actually need for work. I navigated to the form on the Patent Office (you know what I mean) web site, and up came an error message telling me I had to use Internet Explorer!
I dashed off a quick complaint to the Webmaster, pointing out that not everyone in the world has sold his or her soul to Microsoft and a growing number of eccentrics use Firefox - some people even go so far as to use Apple products (non-PCs, perhaps?). When I think about it, requiring people to use IE amounts to forcing them to use Windows, and it is not the government's job to help Microsoft achieve world
domination.


I wondered whether anyone else in this group has faced similar
problems.

Mike Hewlett at the Patent Office replied first thing this morning to tell me that the online form will be replaced in April, and acknowledging its limitations at present, which was very decent of him. Perhaps others who feel as I do would like to lobby for the next version to be made a bit more compatible.

Meanwhile back in Newport they are planning their post Easter Workshops to
launch the new system. Details here. Book your
place by email to Online TM3workshops. So see you on Easter Tuesday in London with your Mac Air Book or your Linux Portable and lets see. For those who need Easter hols you can go to Newport


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