On January 17, 2020, the Trademarks Branch of the Canadian
Intellectual Property Office (“CIPO”)
issued a new practice notice with regard to requesting extensions
of time to file a response to an examiner’s report (the
“Practice Notice”). The Practice
Notice, which can be found by clicking here, is expected to have a profound
impact on Canadian trademark application prosecution
strategies.
Under the previous practice (i.e. in respect of
examiner’s reports issued prior to January 17, 2020),
CIPO generally permitted applicants to request a six month
extension of time to file a response for each examiner’s
report issued during the examination stage. That meant that
applicants could typically count on having up to one year from the
date of an examiner’s report to file a response
(i.e. the six months allowed under the examiner’s
report, plus the six month extension of time). However, per
the Practice Notice, an extension of time to file a response to an
examiner's
