In July 2024, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) launched a new online portal for patent services known as MyCIPO Patents. This new system is supposed to offer improved services to Applicants including the immediate issuance of an application number upon filing, and real-time submission confirmations and payment receipts. Updates to the Canadian Patent Database (CPD) are expected to improve functionality and expand the available document history, as well as align Canada with the WIPO ST.27. Patent Status Standard.

MyCIPO Patents came fully online in October 2024, but its implementation thus far has resulted in, as set out in the examples below, incorrect or outdated information being displayed in CIPO’s public records, as well as some ongoing disruptions and delays that may extend into 2025.

CIPO Continues to Experience a Significant Backlog in Processing Incoming Correspondence. Submissions dating back as far as July 2024 are still being manually processed on a priority basis and may not yet be reflected in the public records of the CPD.

The CIPO’s Public Records May Temporarily Display Incorrect Information or an Inaccurate Status. Due to the backlog of unprocessed incoming mail, some patent applications may still be marked as “abandoned” on the CPD even though a required action was taken, and corrections may not be made until the new year. The CPD database may also provisionally show incorrect bibliographic information, or an incomplete or inaccurate records of events or fee payment history.

Issuance of Outgoing Correspondence from CIPO was Temporarily Stalled and is Resuming Slowly. CIPO appeared to have fully paused outgoing correspondence during the rollout of the new system. Correspondence is slowly resuming, resulting in delays in prosecution. The issuance of automated notices such as filing certificates and missed maintenance fee notices remains particularly impeded. No notices of allowance were issued for several months, and issuance is currently paused until at least November 27, 2024. The publication of applications may also be delayed.

Grant Dates May be Inaccurately Displayed and Projected Grant Dates are no Longer Available: Granting of patents was paused after July 1^st and resumed on August 20, 2024. Applications appearing on the CPD as granted during this period may be erroneous.  Projected grant dates will no longer be displayed on the CPD in the new system. For pharmaceutical patents, grant dates may initiate critical deadlines for listing on the Patent Register and/or for applying for a Certificate of Supplementary Protection and should be closely monitored. A weekly-issued list of granted patents is now available here.

Applicants and their representatives should be patient while CIPO works to resume regular operations. Updates from CIPO are available here. However, during this transition period, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns that you may have.