Fixed-fee Name Check Service for Insolvency Practitioners

Downing IP is pleased to offer a fixed-fee name search for insolvency practitioners.

If you provide us with the full name and postcode (for verification) of one or more names of interest, we will search for:

• UK, European, and International patents & patent applications

• UK, European, and International trade mark registrations

• UK, European, and International design registrations

at a fixed rate of £50+VAT per name.

We would suggest that in an insolvency situation the names should include:

• The company name

• The active directors, and possibly their spouses

• Other senior staff, such as technical staff who may have been responsible for significant inventions

but this will of course be individual to the situation. For example, if the company is simply being restructured the the search could be limited to just the company name.

The aim of this search is to identify whether the company has been active with regard to intellectual property. The searches we can carry out are not comprehensive; trade mark and design applications that have been filed very recently, and patent applications filed within the last 18 months are all unpublished and therefore not searchable. Likewise, if filings have been made in other countries only, then we are unlikely to find these (although UK businesses typically file in one of the above offices first and then wden to include other countries).

If IP rights are found as a result then we can advise on the current status of the rights. A separate estimate for this work can be given once the rights have been identified.