As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, patent offices worldwide are taking steps to minimize negative impacts that patent and trademark filers may suffer.
Many offices have asked their employees to work from home, potentially causing delays. Most or all offices, including the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and European Patent Office (EPO), are conducting oral proceedings via telephone or videoconferencing.
- The United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) has made a 30 day extension available for certain patent and trademark-related deadlines between March 27 and April 30. In order to qualify for the extension, however, a statement that the delay in filing was due to the COVID-19 outbreak must accompany the filing. Patent-related deadlines that have been extended include replies to office actions, issue fees, and appeal-related deadlines. Trademark-related deadlines that have been extended include replies to office actions, ex parte appeals, statements of use, renewal applications and notices of opposition. Because the available extension is relatively short, and obtaining it necessitates preparing a statement outlining how the applicant, registrant, practitioner or other person associated with the filing was personally affected by COVID-19 (e.g. office closures, cash flow interruptions, travel delays, or personal/family illness), we are recommending filing by the original deadline where possible. The USPTO remains open for the filing of patent and trademark documents and fees, and DRM is prepared to assist with meeting filing deadlines.
For more information, see the official Patent and Trademark notices, for questions, contact Kevin McGrath for patents and Cathy Stadecker for trademarks.
- The Canadian Intellectual Property Office extended deadlines expiring on March 16, 2020 through April 30, 2020. Any deadlines after May 1, 2020 that require extension will be reviewed upon request.
- The EPO extended all time limits expiring on or after March 15, 2020 to April 17, 2020.
- The UK Intellectual Property Office has declared that most (but not all) deadlines falling due on or after 24 March 2020 will be extended to at least 1 May 2020.
- The EUIPO has extended most deadlines expiring between 9 March 2020 and 30 April 2020, to 1 May 2020.
- The Australian IP Office is accepting requests for extensions of certain deadlines on a case-by-case basis.
- The Indian patent office is closed for 21 days beginning on March 25th. All deadlines falling in that time period are extended to the day the office is reopened.
- Mexican Patent and Trademark Office is closed until April 19, 2020, all due dates during this time period will be extended.
- The Korean Intellectual Property Office has extended most deadlines through April 30th. Statutory deadlines, e.g. national stage deadlines, requests for examination deadlines, and response to final Office Actions (non-extendible deadlines), remain in effect
Overall, all offices are taking measures to help reduce any delays caused by COVID-19.
Links to certain offices’ COVID-19 webpages are included below. We encourage you to contact us with any questions you might have.
Visit our COVID-19 Resource Center for more information.
