In this practice guideline
Restoring a patent or patent application
Failure to pay a renewal fee within six months of the renewal date will cause a Patent to lapse. Failure to respond to an office deadline during the application process will result in the application going abandoned.
Under certain conditions it is possible to restore a lapsed Patent or abandoned Application.
Applicants will have to:
- apply for restoration through the online system;
- provide evidence that the failure to pay a renewal fee or place the application in order for acceptance was unintentional through a statutory declaration or sworn affidavit; and
- provide evidence to show that there was no undue delay in making the application for restoration.
A request for restoration of a main patent may include a request to restore any associated patents of addition at the same time as making the request for the main patent. Patents of Addition cannot be restored independently of their Main Patent.
Subject to consideration of the evidence, the request to restore a patent or patent application will be advertised in the next journal for an opposition period of two months.
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Electronic confirmation will be sent to the applicant indicating whether any opposition was raised at the end of the opposition period.
Where there was no opposition to the restoration of a Patent Application the application will be restored immediately.
Following notification that no opposition was raised, owners must pay all outstanding fees within one month of that notification before the Patent will be restored.