UK IPO Brings ‘Interrupted Days’ To An End

On 27^th March 2020, in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) declared that the 24^th March 2020 and all subsequent days would be treated as ‘interrupted days’ until further notice.

This meant that compliance with deadlines concerning UK patents, SPCs, trade marks and designs, as well as applications for these rights, were in effect suspended. That remained the case regardless of whether the timescale was stipulated by statute, statutory instrument or by the UK IPO itself.

On 22^nd June, the UK IPO announced that the period of interruption will end on 29^th July 2020.

Whilst the UK IPO has rightly encouraged parties to comply with deadlines that would otherwise have applied notwithstanding this period of interruption, any deadlines that would (but for the period of interruption) have expired between 24^th March and 29^th July, will now have to be met by no later than 30^th July.