COVID-19 Timeline
This year, November 4 and 5 were supposed to be official days off because of Unity Day on November 4. The Russian president has extended the stretch of non-working days to cover the entire period from October 30 to November 7 and empowered local administrations to decree additional days off.
The Moscow mayor has decreed extra non-working days on October 28 and 29 and introduced a partial lockdown from October 28 to November 7.
The regime of work of the Russian Patent and Trademark Office, the Eurasian Patent Office, and courts is still to be determined. Similarly, there is no official information on the possible extension of due dates.
In any case, Sojuzpatent will continue forwarding all communications to the Patent Offices electronically in accordance with the initially set deadlines. We continue to work in the normal regime and are ready to meet our clients’ needs.
14 June 2021
In reaction to the surge of new COVID-19 cases in Russia’s capital, the Moscow mayor has decreed extra non-working days in addition to the already extended (because of a national holiday) weekend of June 12-14.
It is expected that all due dates falling in said period will be automatically extended to the next official working day (June 21).
Sojuzpatent continues to work in the normal regime.
23 April 2021
Russia’s president has decreed additional days off to prevent a possible rise of COVID-19 cases during traditional public holidays in early May.
Public institutions, including Rospatent and some courts, will not be working from May 1 to May 10. In accordance with Russian law, all due dates falling in said period will be automatically extended to the next official working day (May 11).
Sojuzpatent remains ready to assist its clients; during the extended holidays, our employees on duty will handle all urgent matters.
20 November 2020
Amid concerns over COVID-19 second wave, the Russian Patent and Trademark Office (Rospatent) postponed all the hearings at the Chamber for Patent Disputes falling on the week of November 23-27.
Apart from that, both patent offices continue to work in the normal regime, partly in a remote mode. No additional extension of deadlines took place.
We at Sojuzpatent remain fully operational and ready to serve our clients.
22 June 2020
Pursuant to a governmental resolution enacted on June 20, 2020, applicants are entitled to an extension of procedural terms in the Russian Patent and Trademark Office until December 31, 2020 on their specific request.
15 June 2020
Starting June 15, Moscow-based law firms, like most other Moscow organizations, were given the right to work in their offices. Sojuzpatent has partly returned to its building. In order to protect our people’s health, the company still requires that most specialists continue to work remotely.
Rospatent, other governmental agencies, the EAPO, and Moscow courts are working in the normal regime.
12 May 2020
The Russian president has lifted the nationwide non-working days. More powers are given to regions.
The RUPTO and the EAPO are working partly in a remote mode, courts gradually resume hearings.
Sojuzpatent continues to operate as normal.
28 April 2020
In a further attempt to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian president has extended until May 11 the prohibition of nonessential work previously declared from March 30 to April 30.
Sojuzpatent is fully operational and remains ready to assist its clients.
6 April 2020
The week off declared earlier by a presidential decree is prolonged until the end of April. Our office remains fully operational (mostly in the remote mode).
30 March 2020
The Moscow government has adopted strict quarantines measures starting from March 30, 2020. Most our people are now working remotely; Sojuzpatent is fully operational and ready to address any client requests.
26 March 2020
By presidential decree on March 25, 2020, the week starting March 30 is declared a week off.
The Russian Patent and Trademark Office (Rospatent) will only be partly operational, accepting incoming documents filed through their custom electronic systems.
Our offices remain ready to assist our clients. Most operations during said period will be conducted remotely through secure communication channels.
We will alert our clients to further changes via announcements on this website.
23 March 2020
Amid growing concern over the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian Patent and Trademark Office (Rospatent) and the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO) announced amendments to their work processes.
Both Patent Offices encourage applicants to use specialized secure electronic channels for delivering documents. As a pioneer of such systems, Sojuzpatent is ready to continue electronic communication with both Patent Offices either from its premises or from remote locations.
At this time, both Patent Offices are fully operational and no deadlines have been extended. We will keep our clients and partners posted regarding further developments.
18 March 2020
In addition to the information published earlier, we would like to advise our clients that due to the rapid development of the situation with the novel coronavirus, we have taken additional measures aimed at protecting our personnel’s health and safety.
Some of our employees have already started working remotely. All of them have secure access to all the necessary resources.
As stated before, in the case of an emergency, the whole firm will be able to work remotely without compromising the quality of our services.
To avoid even the slightest delay related to the delivery of physical mail, we urge our clients to use electronic communication whenever possible. As usual, we ask clients to copy info@sojuzpatent.com on all case-related emails.
18 March 2020
Pursuant to the Supreme Court’s ruling of March 18, 2020, Russian courts are to postpone most hearings.
16 March 2020
Sojuzpatent is monitoring the rapidly changing circumstances surrounding COVID-19. We would like to inform our clients that our offices are currently open and our client services are continuing as usual.
At present, both the Russian Patent and Trademark Office and the Eurasian Patent Office are operating as normal. Neither has issued any statements concerning the extension of deadlines or other extraordinary measures.
In the meantime, we have tested our business continuity plan and made sure that in the case of an emergency, all our attorneys and staff will be able to work remotely. Thus far, however, we have not implemented such drastic measures.
Nonetheless, we have…
- postponed all travel plans as a precaution based on the recommendation of the World Health Organization;
- placed restrictions on meetings held in our building;
- modified our work regime to avoid commuting during rush hour; and
- ensured that employees who have returned from abroad are properly quarantined at home.
We will continue to monitor the situation and will be taking the proper measures to ensure the safety of our employees and uninterrupted service provided to our clients.
Our sincere thoughts are with everyone affected by the COVID-19 virus, and we hope for a healthy tomorrow.
