The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has once again extended its earlier automatic extensions (previously covering deadlines falling between March 16, 2020 and April 30, 2020, as discussed here). As a result of COVID-19 disruptions, deadlines falling between March 16, 2020 and now May 15, 2020 have been extended until at least May 19, 2020 (the day after the Victoria Day long weekend in Canada).

As before, there may be further extensions announced by CIPO. While CIPO continues to experience delays in its operations, it has been working to resume most of its activities since March.

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 April 27, 2020), can be found here.