On July 17, 2024, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) launched a new electronic system and portal, MyCIPO Patents, as part of its Next Generation Patents initiative. The launch has been fraught with difficulties, creating delays, errors and unresponsiveness.
The following is an update of the MyCIPO Patents system as of April 10, 2025, and delays applicants may yet face.
New filings
All new filings are now using MyCIPO Patents, and we now obtain an application number immediately on filing. The official Filing Certificate/Acknowledgement of National Entry follows once CIPO confirms that all filing requirements were met. We note some Filing Certificates/Acknowledgements of National Entry are missing priority numbers and/or have truncated titles or truncated inventor information, but we have been assured that these are correct on file. Corrected versions will NOT be sent out. Duplicate Filing Certificates and Acknowledgements of National Entry have been issued in some cases; these are being corrected by CIPO if two different application numbers are accidentally assigned to the same application.
We continue to experience delays, and continue to await Filing Certificates and Acknowledgements of National Entry, for many applications filed between June 2024 and February 2025. Requests for specific Filing Certificates/Acknowledgements of National Entry have largely gone unanswered, though we have been assured that in general, CIPO is working through this acknowledged backlog.
Publication
There continues to be a delay beyond the 18-month confidentiality period for the publication of many applications. There continues to be a delay in publication of divisional applications.
No requests for early publication (before the end of the confidentiality period) were acted on by CIPO between July and December 2024.
The Office reports that they have started publishing applications in December 2024, and this will slowly ramp up to normal levels as the backlog is cleared.
Maintenance fees
We are able to pay maintenance fees regardless of whether an application number has been assigned. However, we cannot use the automated maintenance-fee payment system if an application number has not yet been assigned. Instead, payment must be made through “general correspondence”. Maintenance fees paid using “general correspondence” are subject to a manual processing backlog. As a result, many maintenance fees that have been paid are not showing up on the CIPO system as “paid”, with applications erroneously marked as “abandoned” on the CIPO public database. These are slowly being corrected by CIPO, both “on demand” and in due course.
Maintenance fees on applications that are conditionally allowed must currently be paid through “general correspondence”.
Requests for Examination
No acknowledgements of Requesting Examination were issued between July 2024 and March 2025. This has resumed in March 2025, and we are now seeing the backlog being cleared. We have seen CIPO clerical errors in the information on the acknowledgements, which are documented and acknowledged; the Office will only send a written correction in cases where the error is in the application number or filing date, or if the error resulted in the acknowledgement being sent to the wrong place. Other errors will be corrected in CIPO’s system, but a new acknowledgement will not be issued.
Examiner Requisitions
Examiners have been issuing Examiner Requisitions (Office Actions) throughout. However, processing of applicant responses to Examiner Requisitions, and getting them back to Examiners for consideration has been significantly delayed. As a result, we have noticed significant delays in second Examiner Requisitions and/or Allowances based on responses filed since July 2024.
Expedited examination
Requests for expedited examination (either through PPH or otherwise) have not been processed since July 2024. CIPO has confirmed there exist many such cases that are significantly past the service standard or performance target for examination.
Requests for Continued Examination
Requests for Continued Examination have only just recently started being processed and added to Examiners’ workflow, with CIPO working through the backlog.
Allowances
There were no Notices of Allowance issued between July and November. Since November 2024, we have started to see Notices of Allowances being issued, more recently at an improved pace.
Grant
We continue to see significant delays and greatly reduced volumes of granted patents. CIPO has started publishing a list of all applications where the status is “pre-grant”. CIPO aims for granting and issuance to occur within six weeks of such “pre-grant” status, stating they are prioritizing granting of applications which have been “pre-grant” more than six weeks.
Changes of agent
CIPO reports they have started processing revocation and appointment of agent requests, and are working through the backlog.
Assignments and transfers
Assignments and transfers are still greatly delayed, with CIPO working through the backlog.
Late notices
If a maintenance fee is not paid by the deadline, CIPO must send out a “late notice” setting a late payment deadline, which is the later of: six months after the missed maintenance fee deadline, and two months after the date of the late notice. A similar late notice is sent if the deadline to request examination is missed. No late notices have been issued since July 2024. This means many “late” periods (including for maintenance fee payments) have been extended beyond six months, giving applicants extended opportunities to revive applications. Third-party rights still apply in many instances after six months, regardless of whether a late notice has been sent.
Abandonment notices
Notices of Abandonment have not been issued since July 2024. Note that the issuance of a notice of abandonment does not trigger the reinstatement period, which is timed from the date of abandonment regardless of whether a notice has been issued.
Reinstatement notices
Notices of reinstatement have not been issued since July 2024. Applications for which reinstatement has been requested are still showing as abandoned.
Incorrect status on CIPO database
There continues to be a volume of applications and patents with incorrect statuses on the public CIPO database, which do not reflect submissions filed since July 2024. CIPO has stated that the status will be corrected once correspondence has been processed. CIPO has asked applicants do not report or request error corrections due to unprocessed timely correspondence, due to the volume of such errors.
Service standards
It is noted that CIPO service standards for operational tasks have now been largely doubled, to 36 weeks.
The preceding is intended as a timely update on Canadian intellectual property and technology law. The content is informational only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. To obtain such advice, please communicate with our offices directly.