Last week, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom declared that the COVID-19 outbreak "can be characterized as a pandemic," cautioning that the WHO has "rung the alarm bell loud and clear."  At the time of the announcement, the WHO noted that there were 118,000 cases reported globally in 114 countries.  In its latest situation report, the WHO indicates that as of March 17, there have been 179,112 cases in 159 countries.  The Director-General also stated that "[t]his is not just a public health crisis, it is a crisis that will touch every sector – so every sector and every individual must be involved in the fight."  The WHO's declaration last week – and global developments since then – raise the question of how the pandemic is affecting the patent community.

On Sunday and Monday, we reported (here and here) on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, World Intellectual Property Organization, European Patent Office, and Federal courts, including, in particular, the Supreme Court and Federal Circuit.  Today we present responses from IP Australia, Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ), Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (INPI), and Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Australian patent law firm Griffith Hack noted on its website that:

• We are in contact with IP Australia and IPONZ and at this stage we have not been advised of any changes to processes or deadlines.  We note that Australian legislation includes relatively generous provisions for obtaining extensions of time when a deadline is missed and we have extensive experience in obtaining such extensions.  Please contact us if you have a case where an extension is necessary.

• From today (March 18th) the Federal Court of Australia (where the majority of IP legal matters are heard) has suspended face-to-face hearings listed up to 30 June 2020.

Brazilian patent law firm Dannemann Siemsen notified the patent community regarding developments at INPI.  While noting that INPI continues to operate normally and has its staff and examiners working either from home or in the Office, in view of the Covid-19 outbreak, INPI issued a regulation on Monday, March 16, 2020, concerning the prosecution of cases.  In particular, INPI has cancelled all in-person meetings until further notice.  Also, while recommending that applicants should meet deadlines where possible, INPI announced that deadlines would be postponed until April 14, 2020.

Dannemann Siemsen also recommended that to the extent possible, applicants should try to respond to pending office actions and pay applicable fees within the original deadlines.  The firm noted that this will reduce accumulation of workload, which would otherwise create a serious risk of congestion of INPI's online system, leading to the possible missing of deadlines in April.

Earlier today, Canadian patent law firms MBM Intellectual Property Law, Gowling WLG, and Bereskin & Parr LLP notified the patent community regarding recent developments at CIPO.  In particular, CIPO posted a notice on its website today concerning service and website interruptions as a result of the pandemic.  In that notice, CIPO indicated that it "remains open and in operation at this time; however, clients should expect significant delays in all CIPO services."  CIPO also stated that:

On account of the unforeseen disruption caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, and being satisfied that it is in the public interest to do so, the Commissioner of Patents, under subsection 78(2) of the Patent Act, the Registrar of Trademarks under subsection 66(2) of the Trademarks Act, and the Minister under subsection 21(2) of the Industrial Design Act have designated for the purposes of subsection 78(1) of the Patent Act, subsection 66(1) of the Trademarks Act, and subsection 21(1) of the Industrial Design Act all days in the period of time beginning on March 16, 2020 and ending on March 31, 2020.  The result of designating these days is that if a time period fixed under the Patent Act, Trademarks Act and Industrial Design Act in respect of any business before the Canadian Intellectual Property Office for doing anything ends on any of these designated days, that time period is extended to the next day that is not either a designated day or a day that has been prescribed under section 5 of the Patent Rules, section 15 of the Trademarks Regulations and section 36 of the Industrial Design Regulations. It should be noted that if the circumstances that led to the designation of these days continues, the Commissioner, Registrar and Minister may decide to extend the period of time for which days are designated.

CIPO reminded the patent community that its "online solutions are available to you 24/7 and anywhere," and encouraged applicants and representatives to use its online services for all transactions with CIPO.

As Gowling noted on its website, the announcement by CIPO earlier today means that "[a]ll deadlines falling between March 16 and March 31 have been automatically extended to April 1."  Gowling also noted that hearings of the Patent Appeal Board and the Trademarks Opposition Board will take place by telephone and/or teleconference until at least April 30, 2020, or will be postponed.

On Monday, CIPO announced that its regional offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Montréal would not be receiving CIPO correspondence until further notice.

Patent Docs will continue to monitor and report on patent-related developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In addition, we encourage our readers to let us know about developments at other patent offices for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.