Fee-paid Appointed Person, Appeal Tribunal, Trade Marks and Fee-paid Appointed Person, Appeal Tribunal, Registered and Unregistered Design
This exercise is being run by the Judicial Appointments Commission. For more information and to apply, please visit the Judicial Appointments Commission website.
About the role
Launch date: 1pm on 26 November 2024
Closing date: 1pm on 17 December 2024
Number of vacancies: Immediate: 4
Fee: £600 per day (the daily fee is currently under review).
Location: Hearings almost exclusively take place remotely. In person hearings usually take place in London but Appointed persons can be asked to sit elsewhere in the UK.
Overview of the role
The Judicial Appointments Commission has been asked to identify three candidates for the post of Fee-paid Appointed Person, Appeal Tribunal, Trade Marks and one candidate for the post of Fee-paid Appointed Person, Appeal Tribunal, Registered and Unregistered Designs.
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is the official government body responsible for Intellectual Property (IP) rights in the United Kingdom. These rights include Trade Marks, Patents, Designs and Copyright.
The tribunal shares the jurisdiction for appeals with the High Court in England and Wales, the Court of Session in Scotland, and the High Court in Northern Ireland. In practice 90% of appeals have been made to the Appointed Person. The tribunal is well regarded because it provides high quality decisions made by IP specialists at a much lower cost than appeals to the courts.
Whilst a small proportion of decisions can be made from the papers, the Appointed Person will normally make a decision following an oral hearing at which parties may be represented by a wide variety of representatives including solicitors, trade mark attorneys and barristers; or unrepresented litigants.
Trade Marks
Appointed Persons hear ex-parte and inter-partes appeals from decisions by the Registrar of Trade Marks’ Hearing Officers in accordance with Section 76 of the Trade Marks Act 1994.
Registered and Unregistered Designs
Appointed Persons will hear ex-parte and inter-partes appeals from decisions by Officers of the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), acting on behalf of the Comptroller of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks under the Registered Designs Act 1949, and the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and appeals relating to opinions under the IPO’s new opinions service. Although the Registered Designs Act 1949 makes reference to an appeal to the Appointed Person in relation to design opinions, this aspect of the role would only be operative in the event of further order being made to implement the regime.
The successful candidate for Designs must be able to hear appeals in registered design cancellation cases.
This exercise is being run by the Judicial Appointments Commission. For more information and to apply, please visit the Judicial Appointments Commission website.
Contact: 242APIPO@judicialappointments.gov.uk