The IPKat thanks Michael Jaeger of Marks & Clerk for tipping him off about the launch of the UK Patent Office's newly designed website. The site has been completely revamped and, from a cursory glance, appears to be primarily aimed at those without a specialist knowledge of IP.
The IPKat, who is rather in shock at the demise of his favourite online IP gentleman's club, congratulates the Patent Office on the easy-to-read new design.
NEW PATENT OFFICE WEBSITE LAUNCHED
![NEW PATENT OFFICE WEBSITE LAUNCHED]()
Reviewed by Anonymous
on
Monday, September 25, 2006
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Posts
Easy to read it may be, but for those who were using it regularly before it's an absolute mess. Every single reference to the manual of patent practice, published decisions, opinions, practice notices etc. etc. has either been removed completely or arbitrarily changed URL. This is meaningless change for change's sake. The site is no easier to navigate, and there are a few oddities, like listing the tribunal practice notices under patents, when they are all to do with trade marks. It looks slightly easier on the eye (in parts), but that is about it.
ReplyDeleteNul points for the patent office from me.
By the way, all links from ukpatents.wikispaces.com have now been updated. How long they stay correct though is anyone's guess. Having to go through all the sections amending links is only partly why I am so annoyed.
Though I hesitate to dissent from the view of my fellow blogmeister, I must concur entirely with the judgment of Woodpecker. For me, the joy of the old site was the blend of simplicity of use and rich quality of content. If some nice person from the (ever user-friendly) Patents Office staff can tell me where I can find the online decisions of hearing officers and appointed persons, I shall be really grateful. Meanwhile, it's zero out of ten from me too.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of a browsable list of decisions was one of my gripes too. It seems that the only way to access decisions now is via a search page, which has the appearance of being pretty user-unfriendly. To see a full browsable list of decisions, I find it best to give a range of dates. It's certainly not as easy and user-friendly as the old version. One step forward and two steps back, by the look of it.
ReplyDeleteIf you'll notice, I complimented the typeface and not the content - the devil, as ever, is in the detail.
ReplyDeleteAs I said in my post, the new site appears to be designed for those who know nothing about IP. Not great for those of us how have been using it for years.
As Woodpecker points out, a load of the content has been removed, but to add salt to the wound, is still picked up by Google. A trip to the Way Back Machine didn't help me retrieve the missing content either.
You can still browse decisions by going to his page
ReplyDeletehttp://www.patent.gov.uk/tm/t-decisionmaking/t-challenge/t-challenge-decision-results.htm
and identifying the type of decision as eg Appointed Persons, ex parte or whatever and then hitting 'go'.