Intellectual Property Office

The complainant asked the Intellectual Property Office (the “public authority”) to provide information relating to a trade mark it had considered. The public authority advised the complainant that some information was already available to him but that the remainder was exempt under the exemption at section 44 (prohibitions on disclosure) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the “Act”). The Commissioner’s decision is that the exemption at section 44 is not engaged and the information requested should be disclosed unless the public authority chooses to cite section 36. The complaint is upheld. The public authority’s handling of the request also resulted in breaches of certain procedural requirements of the Act as identified in this Notice.