A snapshot from April 2020, when seven IP offices across the subcontinent suspended operations within weeks of each other. The dates below have long passed — what remains useful is the record of how each office handled it, and what that revealed about their infrastructure.
The position in April 2020
Following lockdowns and restrictions announced by the governments of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Maldives, the respective IP offices either suspended operations or moved to limited staff working remotely.
India — all operations suspended until 18 May 2020, with deadlines falling in that period automatically extended to the same date. The online filing system remained active, so applicants and counsel could complete filings.
Pakistan — operations suspended until 9 May 2020, deadlines automatically extended to that date.
Sri Lanka — the office worked remotely, with deadlines extended to 11 May 2020. Because most filings there were still made on paper, the office advised applicants to make an online payment for deadline matters and email the office with the payment details to preserve the deadline, filing the paper documents once the office reopened.
Bangladesh — operations suspended until 31 May 2020, with deadlines extended to 16 May 2020.
Nepal — operations suspended until 27 April 2020, deadlines extended to that date.
Bhutan — the office continued functioning, with staff attending in rotation and the remainder working remotely.
Maldives — publication of cautionary notices continued normally through digital print media, with no hard copies sent until further notice.
What it showed
The variation is the interesting part, and it maps directly onto how digitised each office was.
India’s position was the most workable because e-filing was already the default — operations suspended, but applicants could still file. That was the payoff from a decade of digitisation, including the mandatory electronic filing introduced for patent agents.
Sri Lanka’s improvisation — pay online, email the receipt, file the paper later — is what a paper-based registry has to do when its counters close. It worked, but it depended on the office honouring an arrangement with no formal basis, and on applicants keeping records to prove they had complied.
The Maldives entry is a reminder of how differently that system operated at the time, running on cautionary notices in the press rather than a register — which is precisely what the new Trademarks Act is replacing.
What followed in India
The extensions listed above were quickly overtaken. The Supreme Court, acting suo motu, suspended limitation periods from 15 March 2020, extending that repeatedly until 28 February 2022, with all deadlines falling in that window running to 30 May 2022.
That produced its own difficulties. The Trade Marks Registry did not apply the suspension consistently — refusing some opponents while allowing others, and issuing registration certificates during the suspended period — which required the Delhi High Court to intervene and reopen the opposition window across more than two years of journals.
The takeaways
- India could keep filing because e-filing was already the default.
- Paper-based registries had to improvise — Sri Lanka’s pay-and-email workaround.
- The listed extensions were superseded by the Supreme Court’s suspension to 30 May 2022.
- Inconsistent application of that suspension later required High Court intervention.
Frequently asked questions
Were IP deadlines extended during COVID-19 in India? Yes — initially by the IP Office, then more comprehensively by the Supreme Court, which suspended limitation from 15 March 2020 with deadlines running to 30 May 2022.
Could applications still be filed during the lockdown? In India yes, through the online filing system, which remained active throughout the suspension of office operations.
How did paper-based registries handle closures? Through improvised arrangements — Sri Lanka accepted online payment with emailed confirmation to preserve deadlines, with paper documents filed once the office reopened.
Did all offices in the region extend deadlines? Most did automatically, though the periods differed. Bhutan continued operating with rotating staff, and the Maldives continued publishing cautionary notices digitally.