Intellectual Property Office

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is the UK Government's executive agency responsible for granting and administering patents, trade marks, registered designs, and copyright guidance. Sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), it is headquartered at Concept House, Newport, South Wales, with approximately 1,700 staff, the majority in Newport and around 60 in London.

The IPO featured in the DSIT Digital and Technologies Sector Plan Year One Update (June 2026), which recorded that UK tech companies were granted 1,521 patents in 2024, representing 41% of the national patent total . That figure is cited by government as a proxy for the UK tech sector's research-to-commercialisation pipeline: patents filed and granted are one of the few measurable outputs between laboratory research and company formation.

Beyond statistics, the IPO runs the IP for Business advisory programme and enforces IP rights policy in international trade negotiations. Its Newport base makes it one of the larger government employers outside London, though its influence sits squarely inside the London-dominated IP and venture ecosystem it helps to document.