Angers, April 6 - the President of the Community Plant Variety Office has taken a new decision concerning the extension of time limits for proceedings before the CPVO that fall in the period 17 March – 3 May included.
The new decision amends and replaces the previous decision of March 24, specifically in regard to the deadlines for the fees due. The new decision on fee deadline extensions comes as a result of the financial assessment undertaken by CPVO. While the assessment concluded that any extension of the fees due will bring certain financial risk to CPVO, the Office is however prepared to take such a risk for a limited period of time. The Decision should assist those parties to proceedings who may require financial aid and/or are still in the process of adopting their workflow to the COVID-19 related measures.
The extensions apply to:
application fees
technical examination fees
annual fees
fees for processing specific requests and fees laid down by the President
appeal fees
Right of Priority
Filing of a Notice of Appeal and of the Statement of Grounds
The extensions will not apply to:
Time limits regarding the starting of technical examinations
Submission of plant material for technical examinations by Examination Offices
Compliance with the novelty requirement
Proceedings before other Authorities
Time limits related to other subjects.
CPVO has published the April 6 decision as well as a corresponding Explanatory note don its website. The documents will soon be available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Dutch.
The Office will continue using the time until May 4, 2020, to assess the evolution of the COVID-19 crisis and make all appropriate consultations and adjustments.
All COVID-19 CPVO Updates: https://bit.ly/3dSPR3g