News story

Patents: displaying your rights

From 1 October 2014 you will have the option of marking your product with a web address, instead of the patent number and country of the patent.

Intellectual Property Office

Showing you have patent protection could help stop accidental infringement of your patent. It may also help you get damages from an infringer.

Currently, you can use the terms ‘patent pending’ or ‘patent applied for’ to show that you have applied for a patent.

If you have a granted patent, you can mark the product as patented.

In both cases you should display the patent number and country of the application or patent.

Webmarking

Changes being introduced on 1 October 2014 mean you will have the option of marking your product with a web address, instead of the patent number and country of the patent.

The web address must be of a webpage which clearly sets out the patent number(s) relevant to that product.

Please refer to our guidance on webmarking of patent products (PDF, 97.8 KB, 2 pages) for further information.

Updates to this page

Published 30 June 2014