About Us

The Intellectual Property Regulation Board (IPReg) has been set up by the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) and the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (ITMA) to undertake the regulation of the Patent Attorney and Trade Mark Attorney professions.

CIPA and ITMA are Approved Regulators under the Legal Service Act 2007, and in order to separate their regulatory functions from their representational functions, as the Act requires them to do, they have each set up a Regulation Board (a Patent Attorney Regulation Board and a Trade Mark Attorney Regulation Board) which as far as is possible will act and take decisions together as the Intellectual Property Regulation Board.

IPReg has a Chairman and three Lay Members along with three Patent Attorneys and three Trade Mark Attorneys. When one or other of the Regulation Boards sits to determine an issue which affects that profession, it consists of the Chairman and the Lay Members of IPReg, along with the appropriate three professional members of IPReg.

IPReg is responsible for:

• Setting the Education and Training requirements for qualification as a Patent Attorney and a Trade Mark Attorney
• Setting the requirements for Continuous Professional Development in order that the Patent Attorneys and Trade Mark Attorneys knowledge, skills and expertise are maintained at a high level
• Setting and maintaining a Code of Conduct for the professions
• Handling Complaints of Professional Misconduct against Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys and where appropriate taking disciplinary or other action.

What We Do

The Intellectual Property Regulation Board (IPReg) regulates, on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys and the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys, the Patent Attorney and Trade Mark Attorney professions.

It is our job to set the standard for qualification for entry into the professions and for the standards that qualified Patent Attorneys and Trade Mark Attorneys should meet in providing services to clients. IPReg itself has a responsibility through the two professional Institutes to the Legal Services Board to ensure that the regulatory provisions of the Legal Services Act 2007 are met.

How We Do It

IPReg and the Patent Attorney Regulation Board and the Trade Mark Regulation Board of which it is composed will be responsible for all aspects of the regulation of the professions- education, training, qualifications, keeping the registers, setting and applying standards and a code of conduct and handling complaints against Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys.

Setting standards and a code of conduct will always be done on the basis of consultations with those concerned, the professions, industry, commerce and the public at large. IPReg monitors what is going on elsewhere in the Legal professions and ensures that the professions for which it is responsible responds in a proportionate way to what is happening elsewhere.

It is the Board of IPReg that will be the decision making body in relation to the matters for which it is responsible and which affect both the Patent Attorney and Trade Mark Attorney professions. Where the subject is one which affects only one or other of the professions it will be the appropriate Regulation Board, Patent Attorney Regulation Board or Trade Mark Regulation Board which will make the decision. To focus the efforts of the Board three committees have been set up.