CIPO has announced that it is discontinuing the acceptance of correspondence at designated establishments at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) regional mailrooms as of August 16th. These are currently available in Ottawa, Montréal, Toronto, Edmonton, and Vancouver. CIPO recommends electronic, in person or Canada Post as alternatives.
Tag Archives: Canadian Intellectual Property Office
11 Million
Earlier today, the USPTO issued patent 11,000,000. Since the USPTO granted US10,000,000 about three years ago, the Canadian Patent Office issued about 64,000 patents.
Trademark Backlog
CIPO has published two practice notices directed to the backlog of trademarks awaiting examination:
- Requests for expedited examination – “effective immediately the Office will begin accepting requests for expedited examination of trademark applications” on the basis of court proceedings, combating counterfeit products, protect marks on online marketplaces, or to preserve claims of priority.
- Measures to improve timeliness in examination – the Office will prioritize applications with statements of goods or services selected from the pre-approved list, issue fewer examination reports prior to refusal, and will provide fewer examples of goods or services that would be acceptable in reports.
Industrial Designs
CIPO has published proposed changes to the examination procedure for industrial designs which would send final rejections to “a subject matter expert from the policy and legislation group of the Trademarks and Industrial Designs Branch (TIDB) rather than to the Patent Appeal Board.” Continue reading Industrial Designs
COVID
CIPO has published a Practice Notice regarding the handling of designated days between March and August for patents and patent applications, particularly maintenance fees and deemed abandonments.
Fees
A number of fees at CIPO are increasing by 2% as of January 1, 2021 due to application of the Service Fees Act. As a result, the fees listed in schedules in the various regulations, such as Schedule 2 to the Patent Rules, may no longer be accurate. For example, the regular patent filing fee will increase to $408 as of January 1st. CIPO has an updated fee schedule. Application fees for a Certificate of Supplementary Protection also increase by 2% but not until April 2021.
Patentable Subject Matter
CIPO has published practice guidance on patentable subject matter following the recent decision in Choueifaty as well as some examples for computer-implemented, medical diagnostic and medical use inventions. CIPO indicated that updates to MOPOP are coming later and will be subject to consultation.
Patent Agent Exam
CIPO has published an updated schedule for the virtual patent agent examination process which was deferred from the spring.
MOPOP
CIPO has published a new version of MOPOP with clarifications in many of the chapters.
CIPO
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has again extended the period of designated days so certain time limits will now be extended until August 31, 2020. This latest extension is due to the August 21 to 23 online service interruption. According to the announcement, all of CIPO’s online and fax services will be unavailable from Friday, at 7 pm EDT to Sunday, at 11:59 pm EDT.