On 27 June 2025, the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) released a new Practice Amendment Notice 1/25 (PAN 1/25) following the judgement by the Supreme Court in SkyKick (our article on this landmark ruling may be found here: The Supreme Court’s decision [Sky]kicks into touch).

The new PAN 1/25 encourages UK IPO examiners to consider whether a trade mark specification is "so manifestly and self-evidently broad” that a bad faith objection should be raised.

In light of these developments, UK trade mark applicants are advised to ensure that the coverage of their applications is proportionate and  aligned with their real-world business activities and future plans.

Furthermore, care must be taken when  an application is filed across numerous classes without a justifiable commercial rationale, as applicants may now be asked to explain its commercial reasoning for including the broad term(s) in respect of which an objection is raised.

Should a bad faith objection be raised by the UK IPO, applicants will have two months to respond. To seek to overcome the refusal, applicants can either provide an explanation of their commercial rationale ornarrow the specification to better reflect their commercial rationale.

It will be interesting to see how UK IPO examiners apply the new guidance and  how examination practices will change over the next few months. The guidance itself acknowledges that it is not practicable to specify the exact circumstances in which an objection will be raised.

In the meantime, trade mark applicants should ensure that trade mark specifications are tailored to their actual and intended use and be cautious when adopting broad terminology in order to minimise the risk of facing a bad faith objection.