Since the epidemic began in March 2020, social isolation has become a necessity, prompting firms to reconsider their business practices. Employees are increasingly heavy users of electronic platforms and spend long periods of time at work, which for many of us is our home office.
The Mexican Patent and Trademark Office (IMPI) created an electronic platform for submitting and litigating patent applications a few years ago. However, until March 2020, only a few legal firms employed this electronic platform since it required a lot of attention and was sluggish to operate. Nonetheless, IMPI improved the platform, and in March 2020, when the pandemic began, all applications were suddenly required to be filed electronically because the Mexican PTO was closed from March 24 to July 12, 2020, making physical filing impossible.
New filings have continued to be filed in the electronic platform since IMPI reopened, owing to many benefits such as cost efficiency (less use of paper and ink and a person does not need to physically go to the patent office to file the application). Applications submitted using the online portal have also appeared to be processed more quickly.
New electronic services for patent prosecution at the MPO
Moreover, during the epidemic, the Mexican PTO established a new option that allows applicants to seek the electronic conversion of petitions that are now being prosecuted physically. The applicant can convert from physical to online prosecution for a nominal price, which has the advantage of allowing replies to be filed regardless of whether the Mexican PTO is open or closed. Several of the firm’s clients have chosen to convert their data to electronic format.
COVID-19 is here to stay, but the lessons learned from it will last a lifetime, and in the case of Mexico, the online era for patents has begun.
When an application is submitted in Mexico, whether on paper or online, the prosecution must continue in the same manner. Given that online filing for patent applications was only fully permitted a few years ago, the vast majority of applications now in the substantive examination stage were forced to proceed only on paper.