Let's all be Alternative

The UK Patent and Trademark Attorney's Regulator, IPREG has issued a Consultation on their proposal to apply for ABS licensing status. Being a small regulator and trying to keep things as simple as possible they have come up with the ingenious idea that every entity should be treated the same way, ABS or not.
Every Entity will need a Head of Legal and a Head of Finance and Administration. If they follow the Law Society interpretation of the equivalent SRA provisions these can be the same person, which is essential for the true SOLO.

Two heads are better than one from Paul Mannix

IPReg is also proposing to set up a Compensation Fund (required for ABS licensors). It would be hard to do this if only true ABS were required to fund it so I assume this was a big motivator for the single solution. This funding issue seems to be a problem for the Solicitors Regulation Authority too and they are consulting about it as well.
If you are already regulated by IPReg you should have received the papers directly by email on Friday. We are supposed to respond by 17 September.
Will these proposals encourage you to consider re-joining a partnership or getting into a larger association to ease the regulatory burden?
Will they make trademark only, non-litigation practices opt out of regulation altogether. I want to litigate so accept that there has to be regulation, but if you look in the Journal at the names of agents on UK trademark applications it seems that Google Ad-words are more influential on the market than indications of regulation.