The Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom (often referred to as the UK IPO) is, since 2 April 2007, the operating name of The Patent Office. It is the official government body responsible for intellectual property rights in the UK and is an executive agency of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Responsibilities The IPO has direct administrative responsibility for examining and issuing or rejecting patents, and maintaining registers of intellectual property including patents, designs and trade marks in the UK. As in most countries, there is no statutory register of copyright and the IPO does not conduct any direct administration in copyright matters. The IPO is led by the Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, who is also Registrar of Trade Marks, Registrar of Designs and Chief Executive of the IPO. Since 13 December 2023, the Comptroller has been Adam Williams, Tim Moss was the previous Comptroller following the resignation of John Alty who had been Comptroller General since 2010. The Comptroller General before Alty was Ian Fletcher, who had taken over after the retirement of Ron Marchant on 30 March 2007. The previous Comptroller General was Alison Brimelow (who was afterwards President of the European Patent Office). Substantive duties The existence of the Patent Office and the post of Comptroller General are required by the Patents and Designs Act 1907 (though most of the remainder of this Act has been repealed), but the substantive duties of the IPO are set out in other legislation, including: The Registered Designs Act 1949 The Patents Act 1977 The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 The Trade Marks Act 1994 Each of these Acts of Parliament has been extensively amended since it was first passed. Manual of Patent Practice The Manual of Patent Practice sets out the relevant patent law and the operational practice of the Intellectual Property Office in relation to patents. History The forerunner of the Patent Office, the Office of the Commissioners for Patents, was established by the Patent Law Amendment Act 1852 and opened on 1 October that year. While this is claimed as the date the modern Intellectual Property Office was created it was in fact created later, along with the office of the comptroller under the Patents, Designs and Trade Marks Act 1883 (s 82). There had been a Patent Bill Office, under the control of the Attorney General, which