After previously announcing what was supposed to have been the final (for now) blanket extension of time, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office has made yet one further automatic extension, effectively until August 31, 2020. This is to account both for continuing COVID-19 disruptions and certain critical maintenance to CIPO’s systems, which was to occur at the end of the previous (final) automatic extension and would have meant CIPO’s online and fax services would have been unavailable for a period.

These extensions now effectively cover deadlines falling between March 16, 2020 and August 30, 2020. No further automatic extensions are anticipated in the short term, though should the evolving situation with the pandemic warrant, we may see these again. As we noted when CIPO made its last announcement, further extensions of time may still be available on a case-by-case basis, due to ‘exceptional’ circumstances that are ‘beyond the control of the person concerned’ (in addition to any standard extensions of time that may be available).

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 August 19, 2020), can be found here.