The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) remains open for filings. Currently, as it has been for years, nearly all filings are made online.
Under authority from the CARES Act, the USPTO has extended many trademark and patent deadlines.
Trademark
The USPTO is extending certain deadlines by 30 days if they fell between March 27, 2020 and April 30, 2020. When the filing is eventually made, the filing must be accompanied by a statement that the delay in filing/payment was due to the COVID-19 outbreak. “Due to” means that the practitioner, applicant, registrant or other person associated with the filing was personally affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, including, without limitation, personal or family illness, office closures, cash flow interruptions, inaccessibility of files, travel delays or similar circumstances.
The extended deadlines include:
- Office Action responses, including appeals
- Statements of use, and extension requests
- Notices of Opposition, and extension requests
- Priority filings under specific statutes
- Transformations of specific types of extensions of international trademark protection to US applications
- Affidavits of use or excusable nonuse
- Renewal applications
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) at the USPTO also has authority, upon request, to extend deadlines in cases if COVID-19 prevented or interfered with a filing.
Similarly, if a trademark application/registration was abandoned or became cancelled/expired due to a COVID-19 cause, the applicant/registrant may take advantage of existing procedures to revive it. For more information, please visit this link on the USPTO website.
Patent
The USPTO has also extended many patent deadlines. For more detail, please review this link.
Brooks Pierce is dedicated to keeping our clients fully informed during the COVID-19 crisis.
