USPTO Announces Further Extension of Certain Patent and Trademark-related Deadlines

May 1, 2020

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued official Notices on April 28, 2020 further extending certain patent and trademark deadlines falling between March 27, 2020 and May 31, 2020. Full lists of the specific actions are available in the full texts of the Patent Notice and the Trademark Notice.

The Notices indicate that most deadlines falling between March 27, 2020 and May 31, 2020 will be considered timely if filed on or before June 1, 2020, provided that the delay was due to the COVID-19 outbreak and some party involved with the prosecution was personally affected. The Notices broadly define “personally affected” to include office closures, cash flow interruptions, inaccessibility of files, travel delays, personal or family illness, or other similar circumstances.

Notably, the Notices do not include an extension for new application filing deadlines, such as national stage entry deadlines.

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