COVID-19 Relief by the JPO

COVID-19 Relief by the JPO

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared on Tuesday, April 7, 2020, a state of emergency over the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, following a surge in the number of infections.

Please be advised that our office will continue operation with some staff working in the office and many others working from home.  Please be assured that your patent, utility model, design and trade mark applications are securely handled and responses to Office Actions would be filed timely.

In addition, please note that the JPO has announced relief for those who have been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.  The relief includes the late filing of a response to an Office Action due to the coronavirus outbreak being relieved if the response is filed with a document explaining legitimate reason of the late filing.

Please refer to the following web page for more detail:

https://www.jpo.go.jp/e/news/koho/saigai/covid19_procedures.html

We send our best wishes and thoughts to you and your company/firm and do hope all of this will be behind us soon.

All the best,

Tad Itoh

President