Patent Agent Practice Changes
October 3, 2022 marks a day of patent practice changes coming into force.
In relation to filing patent applications at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), applicants will need to be aware of the following.
Starting October 3, 2022, there will be what is referred to as an excess claim fee, meaning any patent application with more than twenty claims will be subject to additional fees.
Also, if the number of pages in a patent description exceeds one hundred, there will be extra page fees payable.
Similar to United States practice, Canada will now limit examination to a maximum of three examiner’s reports.
Beyond three examiner’s reports, an applicant will be required to file a request for continued examination (RCE) and pay a prescribed fee.
Canada will also introduce a conditional notice of allowance, meaning an application will be considered allowable of only minor defects remain outstanding, and that upon completion of those minor defects the application will otherwise be allowed.
There will also be changes to the requirements for amino acid sequence listings, when it comes to dealing with patent cooperation treaty (PCT) applications.
More information about the upcoming changes can be read about by following the link below.
