Today the Government of Israel (the cabinet, in American-speak) allowed most small businesses to reopen. Sadly, according to an announcement sent out today by the Israel PTO, the government is not according the same privilege to the ILPTO, which is being forced to continue to work with a reduced staff. This, despite the fact that, as previously explained in this blog, many patent examiners were already working at home, and are now forbidden from working at home. This has downstream effects on the practitioners who analyze and report ILPTO office actions, and of course on the backlog at the ILPTO.
Today’s ILPTO announcement noted a few points and clarifications, however, with regard to adjudicative proceedings before the ILPTO.
- Deadlines for filing documents or taking other actions in such proceedings that originally fell between March 22 and April 1, 2020, are now extended until May 15, 2020. Such deadlines that originally fell between April 2 and May 1 are now extended until June 15, and deadlines that fell between May 2 and May 15 are now extended to June 30.
- Hearings scheduled at the ILPTO from May 3, 2020 and onward WILL TAKE PLACE AS SCHEDULED, in the hearing room or the auditorium of the ILPTO building in Jerusalem. Each participant will need to wear a face mask, maintain a distance of two meters from other participants, and observe any other requirements set by the Ministry of Health. A maximum of eight people will be allowed in the room, three from each side in inter partes proceedings; parties requiring more people present may petition for a postponement of the hearing. In the event that a party will be unable to appear as a result of corona-related reasons, it may petition for a postponement of the hearing. To extent that changes in MOH policies affect these rules, the ILPTO will post notices of such on its website and notify parties scheduled to appear in hearings.
The announcement also notes that, per a decision of the Ethics Committee of the Israel Bar Association, the witnessing of declarations by lawyers may be conducted by video conference instead by personal appearance before the lawyer, and that declarations witnessed abroad must be witnessed in accordance with the practice of the jurisdiction where the document is signed.
[Comment: I find this last point comical, because the requirements for a declaration are set forth in the Evidence Ordinance, which can only be changed by the Knesset. The Bar Association isn’t empowered to change the Ordinance. All that the IBA can do is say that it won’t regard a lawyer’s witnessing a declaration via videoconference to be a breach of the rules governing the conduct of lawyers. Apparently the IBA's announcement is indicative of a nudge-nudge-wink-wink-say-no-more-say-no-more understanding between the IBA and the courts, that declarations witnessed this way won’t be disregarded solely on the basis of how they were witnessed. And the ILPTO is telling us that it too plans to abide by this understanding. Of course, the Knesset could amend the ordinance to give such witnessing full legal effect retroactively.]
Finally, the notice notes that the ILPTO will continue to process assignments and name changes in the Patents and Trademark registries, respectively, that examinations and registration of patent practitioners will continue apace, and that the ILPTO will continue to send follow-up notices to parties that receive correspondence electronically to allow them to ensure they received all correspondence. Which seems kind of superfluous if the ILPTO isn’t conducting substantive work, but at least the woman who sends out those notices gets to keep doing her job.
The bottom line for most patent applicants in Israel is that substantive examination of patent applications remains in limbo; PCT national phase entry deadlines remain in place; and deadlines for paying renewal fees remain in place.