The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has announced
that it will soon be changing its practice regarding extensions of
time to respond to office actions. The new policy will apply
immediately upon the publication of the relevant Practice Notice.
The new practice may be in place in the next 4-6 months.
Currently, applicants are easily able to obtain a first six
month extension of time to respond to an office action with the
possibility to further extend that deadline for an additional
six month term based on "exceptional circumstances."
Under the proposed new policy, while office actions will
carry the standard six month term to respond, there will be no
automatic right to an extension of time. Instead, extensions
will be available based only on exceptional circumstances that are
considered sufficient to justify the grant of delay.