US Covid Emergency Patent and Trademark Procedures – what it does and doesn’t cover

The Covid pandemic has affected every aspect of our lives.

The Federal Government has recognized this and determined that the emergency has prejudiced the rights of Patent and Trademark applicants.

In an unprecedented action, the Patent Office declared that “a person who is unable to meet patent-related timing deadlines due to the COVID-19 outbreak may be eligible for a waiver of certain deadlines” for due dates between March 27, 2020, and April 30, 2020. It seems likely that this April 30 date may be extended even further.

 

What does this mean?

So if an application can show that a “person associated with the filing or fee was personally affected by

the COVID-19 outbreak, including, without limitation, through office closures, cash

flow interruptions, inaccessibility of files or other materials, travel delays, personal or

family illness, or similar circumstances, such that the outbreak materially interfered

with timely filing or payment. “, the due date is extended – for free.

This allows for “free” extensions of all patent office due dates.

 

However, this does not protect applicants from Statutory Bars to patentability.

For instance, for provisional patent applications, applicants must still file their full utility application within one year of the provisional application filing date. Specifically, if you filed a provisional between March 15 and April 30 of 2019, you still need to file your full utility patent application within one year of the original provisional filing, or lose your priority. The pandemic cannot be used to extend a provisional due date.

Statutory bars to patentability are also not covered by these emergency procedures.

Certain actions in the United States give rise to a one year time period during which your patent application must be filed. For example, you must file within one year of placing your product on sale, or publicly disclosing your product. The coronavirus emergency procedures delays will not stop this one-year clock: you still need to file within one year of the on sale date or the public disclosure. The pandemic cannot be used to extend a barring event.

So in summary, while the patent office has agreed to waive the fees from many deadlines, you still need to pay attention to certain statutory bars – Covid or not!

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