We advised you that the COVID-19 deadlines were extended to August 24, 2020, and this was the last extension.

However, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has just indicated that ALL electronic filing systems at CIPO will be UNAVAILABLE from the period starting Friday, August 21 at 7 p.m. EDT and ending on Sunday, August 23 at 11:59 p.m. EDT – that is, the weekend before the August 24 deadline.

Therefore, in view of this last-minute change CIPO has added an additional week to the last COVID deadline extension until August 31, 2020.

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/wr04767.html

Presumably, all CIPO electronic systems will be available from August 24, 2020, to August 31, 2020, for last-minute submissions under the COVID-19 deadline extension.

Given this further development, we once again highly recommend that applicants and owners of Canadian IP should carefully review their portfolios to ensure any actions that have been delayed in view of these extensions are now promptly attended to before August 31.

In this regard, as a convergence of filings on August 31 might strain the CIPO electronic filing systems, kindly resolve any outstanding deadlines as soon as possible.

Originally published 21 August, 2020


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