This weekend is when Americans (well, most Americans) change their clocks for Daylight Saving Time. This makes a big difference if you are going to e-file something at WIPO or fax-file something at WIPO.
For example I am in the Mountain Time Zone. Normally, most of the year, if I want to e-file something at WIPO, to get a same-day filing date I need to make sure my e-filing process finishes before 4:00 PM Mountain time. But after this weekend has passed (after I have set my clocks forward for DST) the drop-dead time for a same-day filing date will shift to 5:00 PM. In other words I will have one extra hour to get things filed.
Things will return to “normal” two weeks from now, during the weekend of March 29, 2015. After that weekend has passed (after the people in Switzerland have set their clocks forward for DST) then the drop-dead time for a same-day filing date will return to the “normal” 4:00 PM.
For American practitioners what sorts of filings are we talking about? Filings affected by this change include:
- e-filing a PCT application in RO/IB
- e-filing a PCT Article 19 amendment in the IB
- e-filing a PCT Demand in the IB
- e-filing a Hague Agreement design application in the IB
Hague? Of course as of today most Americans can’t yet file a Hague Agreement design application anywhere, not in the IB nor anywhere else. That won’t be possible until May 13, 2015. But some Americans do file Hague Agreement design applications now, making use of an applicant entitlement having to do with a business establishment in a Hague country. They would do the filing in the IB, having carefully made sure that either (a) they already have a Foreign Filing License or (b) the invention was not made in the US. Such filers have an extra hour to get the filing done, if the filing is done during the next two weeks.