Smart & Biggar
On 17 July 2024, CIPO launched MyCIPO Patents as part of the Next Generation Patents Initiative. The launch was fraught with problems, causing delays, errors, and non-responsiveness. The following is a MyCIPO patents update as of April 10, 2020, and the delays that applicants may still face.
New Filings
All of our new filings now use MyCIPO patents, and we obtain an application number instantly upon filing. The official Filing Certificate/Acknowledgement of National Entry follows once CIPO confirms that all filing requirements were met. We note some Filing Certificates/Acknowledgements of National Entry are missing priority numbers and/or have truncated titles or truncated inventor information, but we have been assured that these are correct on file. Corrections will not be sent. Duplicate Filing Certificates and Acknowledgements of National Entry have been issued in some cases; these are being corrected by CIPO if two different application numbers are accidentally assigned to the same application.
We continue to experience delays, and continue to await Filing Certificates and Acknowledgements of National Entry, for many applications filed between June 2024 and February 2025. Requests for specific Filing Certificates/Acknowledgements of National Entry have largely gone unanswered, though we have been assured that in general, CIPO is working through this acknowledged backlog.
Publication
There continues to be a delay beyond the 18-month confidentiality period for the publication of many applications. There continues to be a delay in publication of divisional applications.
No requests for early publication (before the end of the confidentiality period) were acted on by CIPO between July and December 2024.
The Office reports that they have started publishing applications in December 2024, and this will slowly ramp up to normal levels as the backlog is cleared.
Maintenance fees
We are able to pay maintenance fees regardless of whether an application number has been assigned. We can pay maintenance fees regardless of whether an application number has been assigned. Payment must be made via “general correspondence”. Maintenance fees paid via “general correspondence” have a backlog in manual processing. CIPO’s system does not reflect that many maintenance fees have been paid. Instead, they are marked as “abandoned”. CIPO is slowly correcting these errors, both “on request” and in due time.
Maintenance fees on applications that are conditionally allowed must currently be paid through “general correspondence”.
Requests for Examination
No acknowledgements of Requesting Examination were issued between July 2024 and March 2025. The backlog has been cleared since March 2025. CIPO has made clerical mistakes in the information provided on the acknowledgements. These errors are documented and acknowledged. The Office will only send written corrections in cases where there is an error in the application number, filing date, or the acknowledgement was sent to the incorrect place. CIPO will correct other errors in its system, but no new acknowledgement will be issued.
Examiner Requisitions
Examiners have been issuing Examiner Requisitions (Office Actions) throughout. The processing of applicant responses and getting them to Examiners has been significantly delayed. As a result, we have noticed significant delays in second Examiner Requisitions and/or Allowances based on responses filed since July 2024.
Expedited examination
Requests for expedited examination (either through PPH or otherwise) have not been processed since July 2024. CIPO confirmed that there are many cases where the service standard and performance target for examination have been significantly exceeded.
Requests for Continued Examination
Requests for Continued Examination have only just recently started being processed and added to Examiners’ workflow, with CIPO working through the backlog.
Allowances
There were no Notices of Allowance issued between July and November. Since November 2024, we have started to see Notices of Allowances being issued, more recently at an improved pace.
Grant
We continue to see significant delays and greatly reduced volumes of granted patents. CIPO has begun publishing a list of applications whose status is “pregrant”. CIPO wants to grant and issue patents within six weeks after a “pre-grant status”. They are prioritizing applications that have been “pregranted” for more than six week. CIPO has begun processing requests for revocation of agent status and appointments of agents. They are working to clear the backlog.
Assignments and transfers
Assignments and transfers are still greatly delayed, with CIPO working through the backlog.
Late notices
If a maintenance fee is not paid by the deadline, CIPO must send out a “late notice” setting a late payment deadline, which is the later of: six months after the missed maintenance fee deadline, and two months after the date of the late notice. CIPO must send a similar late notice if the deadline for requesting examination is missed. Since July 2024, no late notices were issued. This means that many “late” periods, including for maintenance fee payment, have been extended past six months. This gives applicants an extended opportunity to revive their applications. In many cases, third-party rights continue to apply after six months regardless of whether or not a late notice was sent.
Abandonment notices
Notices of Abandonment have not been issued since July 2024. The reinstatement period is not triggered by the issuance
not
of a notice. It is based on the date of abandonment, regardless of whether or not a notice was issued.
Reinstatement noticesNotices of reinstatement have not been issued since July 2024. Applications for which reinstatement has been requested are still showing as abandoned.Incorrect status on CIPO database
There continues to be a volume of applications and patents with incorrect statuses on the public CIPO database, which do not reflect submissions filed since July 2024. CIPO has said that the status will change once correspondence is processed. CIPO has asked applicants do not report or request error corrections due to unprocessed timely correspondence, due to the volume of such errors.
Service standards
