In the December 1, 2015, Federal Register, USDA's Agricultural Research Service ("ARS") announced an increase of its Patent Culture Collection charges and revised the payment method. Currently, ARS charges $500 for each microbial culture deposit and $20 for its distribution. ARS is increasing these fees to reflect their actual costs of $670 and $40, respectively, and to apply the distribution fee to all patent deposits regardless of the date of the deposit. ARS's Patent Culture Collection receives about 120 patent deposits per year and distributes about 450 cultures per year. Rule is effective December 1, 2015.
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