USPTO waives filing and fee deadlines amid pandemic

The  US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will waive certain trademark and patent filing and fee deadlines during the COVID-19 pandemic using its newly-acquired authority under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Deadlines for patent and trademark applications, and documents in proceedings and associated fees that were due between March 27 and April 30, can be extended by a month.

The deadlines can only be extended where “the filing is accompanied by a statement that the delay in filing or payment was due to the COVID-19 outbreak”.

According to the office, people associated with the patent or trademark filing may be affected by the pandemic in ways which include office closures, business flow interruptions, inaccessibility of files or other materials, travel delays, personal or family illness, or similar circumstances.

Yesterday, March 31, the US Copyright Office also  announced it was providing flexibility on deadlines, adding that copyright owners need to provide statements to push copyright registration deadlines.

Examples of satisfactory evidence include a statement that the applicant is subject to a stay-at-home order issued by a state or local government, or a statement that they are unable to access the required physical materials due to closure of the business where they are located.

The Copyright Office will also permit additional time for those copyright owners who are prevented from serving or recording notices of termination.

Both offices  derive their authority from the CARES Act, which was signed into law late last week by US President Donald Trump.

Under the law, the office heads can temporarily “toll, waive, adjust, or modify, any timing deadline” to mitigate the impact of disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.

To use the power, USPTO director Andrei Iancu needed to conclude that the emergency “materially affects” the functioning of the office, prejudices the rights of applicants, registrants, patent owners, or others appearing before the USPTO or prevents those appearing before the office from filing a document or paying a fee.

Subsequently, Iancu has now determined that the emergency has prejudiced the rights of applicants and others, and prevented them from filing a document or a fee at the office.

“Inventors and entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of our economy, and we recognise that many of them are having difficulty as a result of COVID-19,” said Iancu. “As a result, we are working to provide as much relief as possible to our stakeholders, consistent with our ability to maintain the USPTO’s fee-funded operations.”

He added that the office’s goal is to ensure not only that inventors and entrepreneurs can “weather the storm, but that they can also hit the ground running once it passes”.

In other COVID-19 news, the European Communities Trade Mark Association (ECTA) has  postponed its 2020 annual conference, which was due to take place in Copenhagen in June. The event has now been moved to June 15-17, 2022.

While the 2020 conference will not be held physically, ECTA is planning to hold its council and committee meetings remotely. It is also working on organising some of the conference sessions as webinars to take place later this year.

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