The corona virus and the measures taken against it have major repercussions for society that are still difficult to foresee. These consequences also affect your intellectual property. In this article, we briefly discuss some key points and deadlines with regard to trademarks, designs, i-deposits and patents.
Benelux trademarks, designs and i-deposits are filed with the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP) in The Hague. It is still possible to file a trademark, design or i-depot at BOIP. BOIP is currently continuing to work with minimal staffing, which means it is unable to communicate a new deadline for all individual requests and procedures. BOIP will not withdraw requests or procedures because a given deadline was not met. Furthermore, based on social developments, BOIP will determine when normal operations can reasonably be resumed, the so-called BAU date. For all requests and proceedings where current deadlines have expired between 16 March 2020 and the BAU date, or where deadlines are less than one month at the BAU date, an additional one-month deadline will be given. This month will be counted from the BAU date.
Union trademarks and designs are filed at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in Alicante, Spain. The EUIPO therefore follows the instructions of the Spanish government. EUIPO has decided to extend until 1 May 2020 all deadlines that expire between 9 March 2020 and 30 April 2020, which affect all parties to the proceedings before the Office. In practice, this means that the deadline expires on 4 May 2020, as 1 May 2020 is a bank holiday. The immediate effect of this extension is that the deadlines in question do not expire when they originally did.
An application for a European patent is filed with the European Patent Office (EPO). The EPO has indicated that deadlines, which expire on or after 15 March 2020, will be automatically extended for all parties until 17 April 2020. This postponement does not apply to the priority term.
For registering trademarks, designs and patents and other intellectual property matters in the rest of the world, applications go through the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland. WIPO has also taken action and has largely switched to working from home. For now, this does not seem to have any impact on the pending proceedings.
With corona, most likely (unfortunately) there will be no end to an infringing situation. Should a third party infringe your intellectual property rights, we will issue a cease-and-desist letter on your behalf. Should you be challenged of infringement, we will also assist you properly.
Infringement proceedings are then conducted before the competent court. This can be done in both proceedings on the merits and summary proceedings. New cases in proceedings on the merits can be filed and registered normally. However, no oral hearings and/or treatments will take place until 6 April 2020. However, a written roll call hearing will take place. Procedural documents can therefore be filed in the usual way. If no documents are received, the case will be stayed for applicable deadlines. If a written response does arrive, the trial continues as usual. Judgments can also be issued and sent. In summary proceedings, the judge decides whether the hearing should go ahead (only in cases of super urgency) or whether it is adjourned (in which case there is no judgment yet). In case the hearing is adjourned, you do not lose your urgency interest. If a hearing follows, it is preferably done digitally (via Skype or Facetime).
If you are unsure about a pending application and deadlines at play or there is an infringing situation? If so, please contact us. We can look with you at the best way to protect and enforce your IP rights.