The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) posted an update on its official website yesterday with information about its activities during the shutdown. Up until this point, the USPTO has been operating through the use of prior-year fee collections. The USPTO now expects that patent operations will continue to function normally until “at least the second week in February”, while trademark operations will continue normally until “at least mid-April 2019”. Applicants and registrants should plan to comply with all outstanding deadlines in pending matters – even if the USPTO is forced to limit activities as a result of the shutdown. While the expectation is that the USPTO website and electronic filing system will continue to function normally and will accept submissions after this timeframe, applicants and registrants should be prepared to make other filing arrangements if necessary.
