It snowed yesterday and today in Jerusalem. That’s not an unheard of occurrence, but it
is infrequent. And the amounts of snow
dropped on the country’s capital weren’t just a light dusting, either – we’re
talking upwards of 20 cm. The 2 PM news is reporting that traffic remains snarled as a result of the snow.
Unsurprisingly, many government employees have been unable
to get to work, with the result being that many government offices are closed. Thus, for example, yesterday the court system
put out this
announcement that all hearings scheduled for the Jerusalem Magistrates,
District and Labor courts were canceled, and that the courts themselves would only
open at 11 AM, and that they would operate on an emergency basis (although the
Supreme Court would continue to operate as usual). Yesterday’s announcement stated that another
announcement would be made concerning court operations today, although the
Supreme Court’s website contains no further announcement. The effect of the court closures is to defer
deadlines for filings due yesterday or today.
Under similar conditions a few years ago in the USA – the so-called “snowmaggedon” – much of DC shut down, including the USPTO.
In contrast, today the Israel PTO put out its own announcement (via its email distribution list, there’s no corresponding announcement on the ILPTO web site): the office is “open for the filing of papers only”. How considerate: there’s still no mechanism for the electronic filing of papers in patent or design cases at the ILPTO, and ILPTO employees have been excused from working today on account of the snow, but if you have a filing deadline for a patent or design matter, tough: you have to physically get your papers to the ILPTO.