On 23 October the Parliament of the Republic of Estonia adopted a new Law on State Fees which prescribes that also the fees for deeds connected with the intellectual property will rise on January 1, 1998.
The fees will increase by 7 to 50 %. For example, the fee for filing an application for registration of trademark will be 2800 kroons instead of the present 2200 kroons (an increase of 27%), the fee for filing patent application 3500 kroons instead of 3000 (16%) and the fee for filing an application for registration of utility model 1600 kroons instead of the present 2000 (an increase of 25%).
The state fees have been unchanged since 1992. The present rise in fees can be considered to be caused by the general inflation in the country.
Also the draft of the law on industrial designs has reached the Parliament by now. The adoption of it can be expected in the middle of November. The Patent Office is quite optimistic hoping the law to come into force on 01 December. The drafts of the corresponding lower legal acts (e.g. instructions for compiling the application, etc.) have already been worked out.
Unfortunately the Law on State Fees does not contain the fees for the deeds connected with the protection of industrial designs. Soon we will inform you of the new fees as well as the possible changes in the attorney fees.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
