COVID-19 Update – Canadian Intellectual Property Office Extends Deadline to August 31

Dear Clients,

Further to our last communication concerning the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) extending deadlines to August 24, 2020, we report that CIPO has announce a short deadline extension to August 31. This extensions is due to a planned system maintenance that was scheduled for the weekend prior to the previous end (August 24, 2020) to the designated days. Any deadline falling between March 16 and August 28, 2020 will be designated under the Patent Act, Trademarks Act and Industrial Design Act as a day where any time period ending on one of those dates is extended to the next day. This means that, effectively, any deadlines for Canadian applications falling within that period are extended to August 31, 2020. Further details can be found on CIPO’s operations and services.

Although CIPO has mentioned that this is a final deadline extension, we will continue to watch the situation with CIPO closely during the pandemic, and if there are any further changes to CIPO’s operations and services, we will let you know.

In the meantime, we wish all of our clients and colleagues, their families and friends to stay safe during these difficult times.

Stephen Beney
Managing Partner