As part of their updated service strategy, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has been working to enhance their services, with a focus on modernizing online services, improving communication with examiners, and improving overall prosecution timelines.

While CIPO has made some strides towards these improvements, there have also been some disruptions, particularly with the launch of the MyCIPO Patents online portal in July 2024, see our previous post on this here: https://kirbyip.com/2024/11/18/notice-ongoing-disruptions-at-the-cipo-resulting-in-prosecution-delays-and-inaccurate-records/.

Additional trademark and industrial design examiners hired. CIPO has onboarded 127 new trademark examiners and 10 new industrial design examiners. This has resulted in improved timelines for trademark examination by CIPO.

For National Canadian trademark applications filed in 2025 CIPO is forecasting the wait times for examination as:

• 13 months for applications filed using the pre-approved list of goods and services (improved from 18 months in 2024)
• 15 months for applications filed not using the pre-approved list of goods and services (improved from 28 months in 2024)

Updated Trademark and Industrial Design electronic services. This includes improved correspondence retrieval services and real-time electronic correspondence for clients, an electronic amendment tool, and improved options for requesting industrial design actions online such as delay of registration, advanced examination and appointing and revoking agents.

Improved Timeliness at the Trademarks Opposition Board (TMOB). CIPO strives to improve the timeliness of TMOB hearings by reducing the time required to schedule hearing dates and receive non-hearing decisions, as well as shortening proceedings by reducing certain extensions of time available to the parties.

Launch of MyCIPO Patents portal. CIPO has launched access to all MyCIPO Patents functionalities allowing for faster, streamlined patent submissions. The launch of MyCIPO Patents continues to have some ongoing disruptions, which we have included updates on below.

Backlog in processing correspondence. There continues to be a significant backlog of processing correspondence incoming to CIPO. The processing dates depend on the type of submission made, including some submissions made in June and July of 2024. Specific processing dates based on the type of submission can be found on CIPOs Next Generation Patents website under the tab Service Status.

Inaccuracies in CIPO Public records. CIPO has made progress on making data corrections and has increased operational capacity to address these issues. However, these issues persist. Erroneous abandonment statuses may result in delays in processing, further to the posted service status processing times.

Delay in making applications accessible to the public (open to public inspection). Currently, there are delays in having applications being made open to public inspection. The volume of these cases being published is gradually increasing.

Granting of Letters Patents resumed. The granting of Letters Patents was stalled from December 3^rd, 2024, with CIPO resuming issuance on January 7^th, 2025. Further, between April 17^th and May 2^nd, 2025, there was a technical issue such that final fees paid prior to November 2024 could not be processed, which has now resolved. Currently, CIPO is processing final fee payments made in June 2024.

To provide clarity, CIPO has begun publishing a list of patents in “Pre-Grant” along with their estimated issuance date. A “Pre-Grant” application status means that the final fee payment has been processed and determined to be compliant. The estimated issuance date is not guaranteed, but CIPO indicates that if an application is not granted on the expected date, it should issue the following week. This “pre-grant” list can be found here: https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/canadian-intellectual-property-office/en/patents/mycipo-patents-what-expect.

Late MF and Examination Notices, Courtesy Abandonment Letters, and Reinstatement Acknowledgements continue to not be sent. CIPO has not yet resumed the sending of maintenance fee and examination fee notices setting late fee deadlines, courtesy abandonment letters confirming abandonment dates, and reinstatement acknowledgement letters confirming successful reinstatement of a patent or patent application. Currently, these processes are expected to resume in June 2025.

General patent prosecution timelines. CIPO has posted updated Client Service Standards and Performance Targets. While there are improvements in timelines for Trademarks and Industrial Designs, many of the Patent timelines have doubled from 18 to 36 weeks. Furthermore, the timelines for subsequent actions for patent files have increased from the expected timeline between 7-10 months to 13-16 months depending on subject matter.

Applicants and their representatives should be patient while CIPO works to resume regular operations. Updates from CIPO on their service improvements can be found here: https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/canadian-intellectual-property-office/en/corporate-information/cipos-service-strategy#page3. Specific updates on MyCIPO Patents can be found here: https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/canadian-intellectual-property-office/en/patents/mycipo-patents-what-expect. However, during this transition period, please do not hesitate to contact us (email@kirbyip.com) with any questions or concerns you may have.