January 16, 2017
Previously, a delay of registration would commence on the date of its request.
Effective immediately, upon receipt of the prescribed fee for delaying registration of an industrial design prior to its approval for registration (i.e., “allowance”), registration will be delayed for up to six months, commencing on the latest of the following dates: the date of allowance of the subject application, the date a previous delay of registration has expired, or the date the request was received.
Unless a delay of registration for an application is granted, an industrial design is registered the day after the relevant application is allowed. It is possible that if the fee and the request to delay registration are not received early enough, the Industrial Design Office may be unable to process the request in time to prevent registration. Consequently, applicants are advised to submit their request to delay registration together with the fee as early as possible in the process. To ensure the timely processing of a delay of registration, it is recommended that the request to delay registration and the fee be submitted when the application is filed or, as early as possible after filing.
Once the request and fee for delaying registration are received, along with a clear indication in writing of the application that is affected, the Office will send a letter to acknowledge receipt of the request. When the application is allowed, the Office will send a letter providing the following information:
- the date of allowance, and confirmation of the start of the delay
- the earliest possible date of registration once the delay expires
The Office will process a delay of registration on the specific application for which the fee has been paid.
Note: Effective immediately, the practice of holding back the registration of a parent application for a period of two months from the date of the receipt of a request, for the purposes of filing one or many divisional applications is discontinued. Since a divisional application must be filed before the design in its parent application is registered, the applicant is encouraged to file any divisional applications on the date on which the parent application is limited to only one design. Should the applicant require more time to file any divisional applications, a delay of registration may be requested in order to benefit from a delay of six months from the date of allowance.
This practice notice is intended to provide guidance on current Industrial Design Office practice but is not binding on the Office. In the event of any inconsistency between the Industrial Design Office Practices guide and this practice notice, the notice is to be followed. In the event of any inconsistency between the practice notice and the applicable legislation, the legislation must be followed.
A fact sheet providing an overview of the changes is also available.