Ending of period of 'excluded days'

Patents Rules 1992 - Rule 77 and Rule 78 

Trade Mark Rules 1996 – Rule 70.

Industrial Design Regulations 2002 – Regulation 50.

As a consequence of the COVID 19 pandemic, the Controller of Intellectual Property had deemed the days between 13 March and 2 June 2020 as “excluded days” for all purposes under the Acts and Rules.   The Controller hereby gives notice of the ending of the period of “excluded days” and that Wednesday 3 June 2020 is a day which is not an excluded day.

The ending of the “excluded days” period means that from 3 June it will be lawful to do any act or thing which fell on a day which was an excluded day.   All users, rights holders, businesses and IP professionals are therefore asked to continue working to existing deadlines and payment due dates and to ensure that any matters with deadlines which were left in abeyance during the “excluded days” period are attended to immediately.  The Intellectual Property Office of Ireland (IPOI) will extend time periods where the legislation allows and where the Controller has discretionary powers, he will consider requests for extensions of time as favourably as possible, on a case-by-case basis.

The IPOI premises will continue to remain closed to the public and to personal callers until further notice.  IPOI staff working remotely will continue to maintain its online and e-services, including e-filing of applications, electronic fee payments and will deal with email enquiries during normal working hours.  Clients and customers are asked to use our online e-filing and payment services, to communicate with us by email whenever possible and to note that there may be delays in dealing with and responding to postal communications.  Please note that IPOI staff are not able to deal with telephone enquiries.  All enquiries should be made by email and directed to the following email address until further notice:  ipinfo@ipoi.gov.ie