US Patent Office fee increases

Most of the USPTO’s revenue is derived from maintenance fees. However, for applications filed many years after the earliest priority date, the natural term of the patent often expires before the 11.5 year maintenance fee is due. As a result, the USPTO is unable to fully recover its costs for examining these applications.

Key takeaways

• Overall, patent fees are increasing on average 7.5% from previous levels.
• Continuation and divisional applications that are filed 6 or more years from the earliest benefit date (i.e. PCT application filing date) will require the payment of a USD2,700 surcharge in addition to the government filing fee.
• Continuation and divisional applications that are filed 9 or more years form the filing date will require the payment of a USD4,000 surcharge in addition to the government filing fee.
• Fees associated with post-grant proceedings will increase by 25%.
• Excess claim fees will double to USD200 for each claim over 20 and increase to USD600 for each independent claim over three.
• Fees for filing a request for continued examination (RCE) will increase by 10% to USD1,500. RCE fees increase substantially to USD2,860 for second and subsequent RCE.
• Cost of applying for a patent term extension (PTE) will increase from USD1,180 to USD2,500.
• Fees for filing an information disclosure statement (IDS) will also increase depending on the number of documents provided to the USPTO. Up to 50 items (USD200), up to 100 items (USD500 less any amount previously paid), Up to 200 items (USD800 less any amount previously paid).

What can you do?

Let us know if you would like us to review your US pending cases that are approaching 6 years or greater from the filing date to consider whether any US continuation or divisional applications should be filed prior to 19 January or prior to the 6 year anniversary.