Reed W. Taubner
Counsel
Article
As we recently reported, the Canadian Trademarks Office (CIPO) has announced a further automatic extension of trademark deadlines, with deadlines originally falling between March 16 and April 30 (inclusively) now extended until May 1, 2020.
Even so, parties involved in Canadian trademark opposition and summary cancellation ("Section 45") proceedings may need additional deadline relief, particularly those undertaking complex steps such as preparing evidence or conducting cross examinations (which may not be possible due to physical distancing). CIPO recognizes this and has now explained in more detail how it will evaluate extension of time requests after the current period of deadline relief ends.
However, if a deadline falling before March 16 was missed as a result of COVID-19, this missed deadline will not be corrected by the automatic extension that CIPO has granted and the party that missed the deadline will need to quickly request a retro-active extension of time, explaining why the failure to act on time was not reasonably avoidable.
This is a time of uncertainty. Policy makers are having to make decisions "in real time", creating waves of evolving information for members of the legal and business communities to absorb. Your Gowling WLG professionals remain committed to helping you navigate this challenging time.
For other pandemic resources, our COVID-19 resource hub is continuously being updated with new information as it becomes available.
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