Now for the eight time, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office has again extended its earlier automatic extensions on account of continuing COVID-19 disruptions, until at least August 10, 2020 (the previous and seventh extension discussed here). These extensions now effectively cover deadlines falling between March 16, 2020 and August 9, 2020. Yet again, CIPO has not indicated this is the last automatic extension, and therefore further extensions are likely though not certain.

As a best practice, we recommend still meeting the original deadlines for all Canadian trademark matters, where possible. Clark Wilson LLP’s trademark group remains accessible and available to assist, and is working to meet such deadlines where we have timely instructions.

CIPO’s latest announcement on these automatic extensions, first made March 17, 2020 (and last updated July 15, 2020), can be found here.