The UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) has declared 24 March 2020 and subsequent days until further notice to be interrupted days. This declaration means that any deadlines for patents, trade marks, designs and supplementary protection certificates (SPCs), and applications for these rights, which fall on an interrupted day will be extended to the next non-interrupted day.
This applies to all time periods set out in the various relevant UK Acts and Rules, and to all non-statutory periods that have been specified by UK IPO staff.
It does not apply to time periods set out under the various international IP treaties, for example, the Patent Cooperation Treaty, European Patent Convention, or the Madrid system for International Registration of Trade Marks, where the UK IPO may be acting as a Receiving Office.
This period of interruption does not affect filing dates of patent, trade mark, design or SPC applications which are filed at the UK IPO and do not claim priority from a previous application.
The UK IPO will review the situation again on 17 April 2020, at which time they will either continue with the period of interruption or announce that the period will end after a further two weeks.
In line with UK IPO advice, we would encourage clients to continue to work to the original deadlines wherever possible.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.