Industrial Design Office Practices (Page 7 of 17)
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7. Extension of time
Upon receipt of a written request from the applicant, the Industrial Design Office will generally grant one (1) extension of time of six (6) months to reply to an Examiner's Report. If, following the expiry of the extension of time, the applicant fails to reply, the application will be considered abandoned.
No requests for any further extensions of time will generally be considered. In exceptional cases only the Office will consider granting one (1) additional extension of time up to a maximum of six (6) months. In such cases the Office will require that the applicant provide a written request that specifies the additional time required and explains the exceptional circumstances that prevent the applicant from replying to the Examiner's Report within the specified period.
If the circumstances explained by the applicant are not considered to justify a further extension of time, the Office will notify the applicant in writing that the request has been refused. The applicant will have one (1) month from the date of the notification to file a response or the application will be considered abandoned.
The following are examples of exceptional circumstances that could justify an additional extension of time:
- Recent change in the Applicant (i.e., by way of an assignment) and/or a recent change in the Agent:
If there has been a very recent change in the applicant and/or the agent, the Office may grant an additional extension of time, allowing the new applicant and/or the new agent to become familiar with the file in order to be able to reply to the outstanding report.
- Circumstances beyond the control of the person concerned:
Examples could include illness, accident, death, bankruptcy or other serious and unforeseen circumstances.
