11th
CIPO practice notice - extra 6 months only in TM prosecution
A CIPO news item refers to the coming into effect on March 11, 2010 of a new practice notice curtailing the Office’s practice of granting multiple extensions of time to respond to an Office Action Report during trade-mark examination. A similar practice notice will also apply to industrial designs.
As stated in the practice notice:
Effective immediately, the Office will generally grant an applicant one (1) extension of time of up to a maximum of six (6) months to file a response to an examiner’s report, if the request is justified. No requests for any further extensions of time will generally be considered.
Where there are “exceptional circumstances”, the Office may grant extra time. Examples of exceptional circumstances are provided in the practice notice.
