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Law360 (April 28, 2020, 9:14 PM EDT ) The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced Tuesday that it is extending certain patent and trademark filing deadlines until June 1, lengthening extensions put in place last month because of the pandemic.
The office said that documents that would otherwise have been due between March 27 and May 31 will now be considered timely if they are filed on or before June 1, provided that they are accompanied by a statement that the filing delay was due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The office announced a different arrangement for filings at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. It said that while due dates for certain PTAB filings through April 30 are extended for 30 days, parties must request an extension of time from the board for any filings due after April 30.
"Innovation and entrepreneurship will play a key role in our fight against this pandemic, and in the upcoming recovery of our country," USPTO Director Andrei Iancu said in a statement Tuesday. "Accordingly, the USPTO continues to assess measures to support the work of inventors and entrepreneurs during this crisis and beyond."
Last month, the office announced that filing deadlines for documents that would have been due between March 27 and April 30 would be extended for 30 days from the initial due date. That meant that without Tuesday's announcement, due dates that fell on Friday or later would no longer have been subject to extension.
Many deadlines for patent and trademark filings are governed by statute and typically cannot be extended by the USPTO. However, the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act granted the office temporary authority to extend the deadlines during the crisis.
Attorneys told Law360 that the deadline extensions will be useful for many companies and firms whose business has been disrupted by the crisis, while others are likely to continue making an effort to get filings in on time and obtain their patents and trademark as quickly as possible.
The office outlined some broad parameters for what it means for a delay in filing to be due to the pandemic.
It covers situations where the filer or attorney or their family is "personally affected" by the outbreak, such that it "materially interfered" with their ability to meet the deadline. This includes illness, delays in the ability to meet deadlines caused by office closures, cash flow interruptions, inaccessibility of files and other circumstances.
When the pandemic began, the USPTO waived other requirements that didn't require congressional approval, including certain fees to file petitions seeking to revive patent and trademark applications abandoned based on missed deadlines.
The office has also called off face-to-face meetings between applicants and patent and trademark examiners, along with hearings before the PTAB and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. The USPTO closed its offices to the public last month.
--Editing by Alanna Weissman.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
