Canada Patent Office's new electronic filing platform and new database are full of problems

On July 17, 2024, after a long wait and two weeks after the originally promised opening date, the Canadian Patent Office finally launched MyCIPO. Previously, the Canadian Patent Office's search database and electronic application platform were praised by users for their smooth operation. The new database and electronic application system are therefore highly anticipated. The new MyCIPO allows users to obtain Canadian patent application numbers immediately after submitting patent applications online, and receive payment receipts immediately. MyCIPO promises to be consistent with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ST.27 status information, reduce manual input errors by the patent office, and provide users with a better service experience.

Unfortunately, MyCIPO encountered many problems after it was launched, resulting in the public being completely unable to access the Canadian patent search database from July 17 to August 1, and the patent data was not updated. During this period, users were also unable to obtain any patent application information through other databases. Although the database has now been restored, more users have noticed that there are varying degrees of inaccurate information in the patent data. Previously, the annual fees that have been paid can be displayed in the patent search information, and users can clearly see the patent payment information, but now, this information is no longer available from the patent status information. If you want to obtain the payment status of the patent annual fee/maintenance fee, you must log in to the MyCIPO annual fee payment portal.

During the MyCIPO payment process, some individual patents were unable to pay, which may be due to the lack of certain necessary patent field information.

The new MyCIPO has also led to significant delays in the issuance of CIPO notifications, which is still ongoing. The agency has not received any notifications from CIPO for several weeks, which has directly led to delays in patent application numbers and the inability to obtain patent certificates within the normal time.

We noticed that no patent applications were granted from July 2 to August 20, and the number of patent grants began to recover slowly in September. The grant dates from July 3 to August 19, 2024 shown in the CIPO database were incorrect and are still being corrected. As you can imagine, this will have a huge impact on patent applicants/patent owners applying for supplementary protection certificates. CIPO's customer service said that the recovery work is "in progress" but could not give an estimated date for the problem to be resolved. The interface in MyCIPO often pops up a warning that "we are facing technical problems." IP Horizons is also still offline.

Customers who need to pay Canadian annual fees, please contact the code on the page immediately for help.