The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) Intellectual Property (IP) division’s external systems resumed on 1 May 2020 but are managed by limited staff.
Although provision was made to extend any deadlines which fell after 25 March 2020 to 6 May 2020 (excluding 4 and 5 May 2020), you will be required to apply for the late renewal of a trade mark; condonation of an extension or opposition period; and forfeit a claim to priority in terms of the Paris Convention, if this was not done within the allowed time period.
Manual lodgements of documents have been possible since 4 May 2020 via courier services only at the drop box offices in front of the DTI campus Block F. Documents will not be received in person by any CIPC staff member.
The next Patent Journal will be published at the end of May 2020. CIPC has only issued Patent Journals for 2020 for the months of January and February in 2020.
The online query system (QRS) was made available from 1 May 2020.
No external visitors, meetings with clients, trade mark related hearings and physical inspection of files will be permitted at CIPC until further notice.
Our South African IP Team is fully operational working remotely.
