Official Notice: Payment of Fees

Publication Date: 2001-09-24

A recent decision of the Federal Court of Canada, Dutch Industries Ltd. and the Commissioner of Patents, Barton No-Till Disk Inc. and Flexi-Coil Ltd. (2001 FCT 879) addresses the consequences of the failure to pay correctly the prescribed fees within the prescribed time limits. As a result of this decision, CIPO has reviewed its practices in relation to the reception and handling of fee payments and effective September 24, 2001 will apply the following practice.

CIPO will not accept any corrective payments which are submitted after a due date, unless the appropriate actions are taken as required by legislation, e.g., a reinstatement or late fee in the correct amount is submitted within the prescribed period. This applies to all corrective payments, whether they are submitted to compensate for incorrectly having paid small entity fees, for submitting less than the required fee, for having sent an NSF cheque, for rejected credit card transactions or because of a lack of funds in a deposit account.

In addition, no effect will be given to any request or instructions, relating to fees or otherwise, that is not clear or that is made conditional on some other event or action having taken place. Should unclear or conditional requests or instructions be received, CIPO will advise that they are considered to have no effect.