COVID-19 in France: Exceptional time extensions in intellectual property

The French Government has declared national health emergency and passed ordinance No. 2020-306 as of 25 March 2020 to push back all deadlines expiring during the current COVID-19 pandemic. This ordinance applies to both administrative and judicial proceedings, and includes:

• deadlines set by law (ie legal actions, oppositions and renewals)
• deadlines set by the office (ie objections)
• deadlines set by the courts (ie civil hearings and deliberations).

According to this ordinance, all deadlines expiring between 12 March 2020 and 24 June 2020 will be extended to 24 july 2020 or 24 August 2020 (depending on the length of the initial period):

• if a 1-month deadline falls due on 10 April 2020, this deadline is now postponed to 24 July 2020
• if a 2-month deadline falls due on 10 April 2020, this deadline is now postponed to 24 August 2020.

French courts’ activities are currently limited to urgent and essential matters that do not concern intellectual property litigation. However, parties are urged to proceed with any possible actions now, to avoid congestion of the office and courts after the end of the crisis.

These measures should also apply to administrative cancellation actions, come into force on 1 April 2020, and should impact the courts' Summer recess. However, these topics have not been addressed yet. We await further communications and will keep you updated.