Portugal: Suspension of terms lifted as of April 16th, 2020

abril 2020

During the exceptional and temporary period which Portugal is going through, due to the epidemiological situation of the new coronavirus – Covid 19, it came into force Law No. 1-A / 2020, of 19 March, as well as Decree-Law No. 10-A / 2020, of 13 March, which in reference to article 7 of the aforementioned law, suspended the deadlines and procedures regarding the carrying out of procedural acts provided for in the Industrial Property Code, hereinafter referred to as CPI. However, and despite this suspension, interested parties could keep carrying out procedural acts but only through INPI’s online services, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, as well as by courier.

With the entry into force of Law no. 4-A / 2020, of 6 April and Dec-Law no. 16/2020, of 15 April, INPI has informed that the aforementioned suspension has been lifted for all deadlines set forth in the CPI that run in favor of individuals, resuming the counting of deadlines that were running on the date they were suspended, that is, March 12, 2020. This change is mandatory for all deadlines provided for in the CPI.

Therefore, as of April 16, 2020, all the above mentioned acts will have to be performed through INPI’s online service, including European and international requests.

This regime will remain in effect until June 30, 2020, and the INPI will certainly notify interested parties preferably at the email address indicated by users. In this regard, all users were alerted on the INPI website to ensure their emails are valid. The change or rectification of such email address must be filed online for free and does not require a digital signature.

Note: The lifting of the suspension of time limits does not apply to the limitation periods for Infractions procedures under the terms of article 6º al. B) of Law no. 1-A / 2020, being certain that this suspension will end as soon as the decree-law that puts an end to this exceptional situation is published.