The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced significant increases to certain patent fees, impacting patent applicants, owners, and challengers.
The rule is effective on January 19, 2025 and sets or adjusts 433 patent fees for undiscounted, small, and micro entities, including the introduction of 52 new fees.
The USPTO is adjusting by approximately 7.5% all patent fees not covered by the targeted adjustments. The routine fees to obtain a patent (i.e. filing, search, examination, and issue fees) are set to increase relative to the current fees to ensure financial sustainability and accommodate increases needed to improve the predictability and reliability of patent intellectual property protection. The filing, search and examination fees not covered by the targeted adjustments are adjusted by an additional 2.5% on top of the 7.5% across-the-board adjustment, for a total front-end increase of 10%.
Targeted adjustment fees
Applicants who meet the eligibility criteria for small or
micro entity discounts will continue to pay a reduced fee for the
fees eligible for discount. For targeted adjustment fees, the USPTO
will continue to offer discounted fees for applicants that qualify
for the "small entity" or "micro entity"
statuses. Small entity fees are set to 40% of the undiscounted
fees, while micro entity fees are set to 20% of the undiscounted
fees. Some key targeted changes for the undiscounted entity fees
include:
Continuing application fees
The USPTO set a new tiered fee for filing continuing
applications (continuations, divisional applications, and
continuations-in-part) more than six or nine years after the
earliest benefit date, or presenting delayed benefit claims. The
fees are $2700 and $4000 for the six and nine years benefit claims,
respectively.
Design patent application fees
The design patent application fees for filing increases by
36%, the search fee by 88% and the issue fee by 76%.
Excess claim fees
USPTO has increased the excess claims fees for
non-provisional applications. For applications with more than 20
claims, the fee increased by 100% and is set to $200 for each
excess claim. When the application is filed with more than three
independent claims, the USPTO has proposed a 25% increase, bringing
the fees to $600 for each excess claim.
Extension of time for provisional applications
fees
While the extension of time fee for most of the patent
applications will be increased in accordance with the
across-the-board proposal, the USPTO reduces the financial burden
on applicants who are still determining whether to move forward
with a nonprovisional application. The USPTO implements a decrease
by an average of 81% to extension of time fees for provisional
applications.
Information disclosure statements fees
The USPTO introduces new fees for filing large information
disclosure statements, ranging from $200 to $800.
Request for continued examination fees
The request for continued examination fees increases for both first and subsequent examinations by 10% and 43%, respectively.
Our advice
Applicants who are considering filing continuation and divisional applications or applications with large claim sets may want to file before January 19, 2025. In some cases, because excess claim fees are doubling and excess independent costs also are increasing, it might be more cost-effective to file a second application to target additional subject matter and claims.
Filing continuation applications in parallel can help reduce the risk for later-filed continuations.
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.