The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has officially declared days after 24 March 2020 as “interrupted days” until further notice.
It means that any deadlines for patents, supplementary protection certificates, trade marks, designs, and applications for these rights which fall on an interrupted day will be extended to the next non-interrupted day.
According to the IPO, this rule applies to “all time periods set out in the various relevant UK Acts and Rules, and to all non-statutory periods that have been specified by staff”.
But it does not apply to time periods “set out under the various international IP treaties”. This includes the Patent Cooperation Treaty, European Patent Convention, or the Madrid system, where the Office may be acting as a Receiving Office.
Neither does the announcement affect filing dates of IP applications which are filed at the Office and “do not claim priority from a previous application”.
Commenting on the rule changes, the IPO said: “We are taking this action in view of the disruption to applicants’ businesses and ability to receive and send post by the current coronavirus pandemic. It is consistent with action taken by other intellectual property offices such as the European Patent Office and the European Union Intellectual Property Office.”
It added that it plans to review the situation on 17 April 2020, after which date the interruption period may be continued or cease after a further two weeks.
The news comes after the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) announced that it had extended all time limits for EU trade marks and designs expiring between 09 March 2020 and 30 April 2020 in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
In a statement, the European regulator said the pandemic “constitutes an exceptional occurrence” and has “disrupted proper communication between parties worldwide and the Office”.
In practice, the decision means that an EU trade mark due for renewal on 20 March 2020 can now be renewed by filing a request with the regulator before 01 May 2020. The extension also applies to notices of opposition.
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