Canada joins DAS for patents as Accessing Office

Canadian flagUntil now, every Office that had become an Accessing Office for designs had previously been an Accessing Office for patents (except Canada).  And until now, every Office that had become a Depositing Office for designs had previously been a Depositing Office for patents (except Canada). 

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On October 30, 2019, Canada became an Accessing Office for patents.  (Canada had been an Accessing Office for designs since April 1, 2019.)  To see this, simply go to your DAS workbench and download a fresh Certificate of Availability for any of your patent files.  And there you will see (example at right) that Canada can retrieve the electronic certified copy.

If you are a practitioner in any of the Depositing Office locations for national patent applications (that is, AR, AU, BR, CL, CN, DK, EA, EE, EP, ES, FI, GE, IL, IN, JP, KR, MA, NL, NZ, SE, UK, US) or any of the Depositing Office locations for PCT patent applications (that is, AR, AU, BR, CL, CN, DK, EA, EP, ES, FI, GE, IB, IL, IN, MA, NL) or any of the Depositing Office locations for utility models (that is, CL, CN, EE, ES, FI, GE, JP, KR), then this will henceforth save you having to send a physical certified copy to Canadian counsel.  Instead, you would simply send a Certificate of Availability to Canadian counsel, along with the DAS access code.

Even now, Canada is not yet a Depositing Office for patents.  I imagine that soon Canada will become a Depositing Office for patents.

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