Impact of COVID-19 on the National Institute of Industrial Property

In response to the outbreak of COVID-19, the National Institute of Industrial Property (the “INPI”, after its Spanish acronym) issued Resolution 16/2020 on March 17, 2020, extending all deadlines until April 3, 2020.

Section 1 of this Resolution establishes "the suspension of all the terms, relative to summonses, responses, hearings or final notifications (...) so legal or regulatory ones" that were in course on March 12, 2020, "in all the proceedings of competence of this NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY (INPI), until April 3, 2020".

Section 2 states that  the INPI will accept filings made within the original deadlines (i.e. before April 3, 2020), and Section 3 states that this measure may be extended if the reasons that motivated said measure still remain.

This Resolution entered into effect on March 18, 2020, the date on which it was published in the Official Gazette.

In sum, all deadlines will be extended until April 3, 2020. This does not mean that the legal terms are extended, but that the deadlines that fall within this extension will be postponed until April 3.