Ukraine's Wartime IP Deadline Suspension Has Ended
The martial-law freeze on Ukrainian IP deadlines ended on 31 May 2025, and the 75-day transition closed in August 2025. What that means for a file nobody has touched since 2022.
A lot of Ukrainian IP files were parked in 2022 on the understanding that “all deadlines in Ukraine are frozen.” That was true for three years. It stopped being true on 31 May 2025 — and the transitional window that followed closed in August 2025. A file left untouched since then may no longer be in the state its docket says it is.
What happened, in order
February 2022. With the introduction of martial law on 24 February 2022, Ukraine suspended the running of procedural time limits in IP matters — response periods, renewal deadlines, fee payments and similar — for the duration of martial law. Applicants and owners who could not act were protected from losing rights.
April–May 2025. Law of Ukraine No. 4362-IX, adopted on 16 April 2025, ended that suspension. It was published on 1 May 2025 and came into force on 31 May 2025, even though martial law itself continues.
June–August 2025. The law gave a 75-day transitional period from its entry into force. Suspended time limits resumed, with time already elapsed before the suspension still counted; for time limits that arose during martial law, the required action had to be taken within the regular period or the 75 days, whichever was longer. Patent annuities left unpaid when the law took effect were treated as paid on time if paid within the 75 days.
That window closed in mid-August 2025 — published summaries put the last day at 13 or 14 August, depending on the counting convention. Since then, the ordinary rules apply.
What this means for a dormant file now
The practical question has changed. It is no longer “is this matter still frozen?” — it is “what happened to it when the clock restarted?”
- Unpaid patent annuities not paid within the transitional window can mean the right is treated as lapsed — and the lapse is dated back to the original due date, not to August 2025.
- Unanswered office actions whose resumed time limit has run out may have led to the application being refused or treated as withdrawn.
- Missed renewals of trademarks and designs fall under the ordinary late-renewal rules, which have their own grace periods and surcharges.
None of this is necessarily final. Depending on the right and the deadline concerned, Ukrainian law can still offer late renewal against a surcharge, restoration of a lapsed right, or reinstatement of an application. But those remedies have their own time limits, and they are counted from the ordinary dates — so the longer a file waits, the fewer options remain.
What to do with a file you are unsure about
- Find the application or registration number, not the docket note.
- Check its actual status in the public register of UANIPIO, the Ukrainian IP office, at sis.nipo.gov.ua — the register reflects what the office has recorded, which may differ from what was last reported to you.
- If the status is not what you expect, identify the original deadline and work forward from it under the ordinary rules to see what remedy, if any, is still open.
Secondary summaries of the 2025 law — including this one — differ on small details, such as the exact closing date of the window. For a live matter, rely on the register and the text of the law, not on a summary.
Sending us a matter
Send us the number and we will check the record in the register, tell you plainly where the matter stands, and — if something has lapsed — whether a remedy is still available and what it would cost.