The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) has introduced groundbreaking changes to the practice of examining trademark applications, responding to the high-profile Supreme Court decision in the case of SkyKick UK Ltd against Sky Ltd., which we wrote about some time ago on the blog (and in which we predicted a change in approach in this area).

The new guidelines, contained in Practice Amendment Notice (PAN 1/25), fundamentally change the approach to assessing the specification of goods and services in trademark applications. The changes primarily address the practice of submitting overly broad specifications in bad faith, when the applicant does not have a genuine intention to use the trademark for all the declared categories.