17.1. Deferment of Acceptance - Introduction

Date Published

1.1 Section 36 of the Trade Marks Act 1995 allows the Registrar to defer acceptance of an application in the circumstances and for the period provided for in the regulations.

Deferment of acceptance is where the period of time that is allowed under subsection 37(1) and reg 4.12 for an application to gain acceptance is set in abeyance - deferred - because a request for deferment has been made and/or certain conditions are met (reg 4.13). After termination of deferment, the amount of time that is left of the time period for acceptance will be the amount of time that was left at the date the request for deferment of acceptance was filed.

Deferment can be requested at any time during the examination process once a first report has issued. An application for deferment must be made before the application lapses. There is no fee for requesting a deferment.  

If you request deferment close to the acceptance due date, it may be necessary to lodge an extension of time when filing the deferment request. This will allow time to respond to the examination report once the deferment has terminated.

If a trade mark application has lapsed prior to acceptance, an extension of time for acceptance will need to be filed. This extension will need to be approved before a deferment request can be processed.

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