EPO - Change Of Fees And The Rule On Payment Of 3rd Annual Fee

The European Patent Office announced that a number of fee reductions for patent applications have come into force on April 1, 2018. There is no inflation increase across the board this year, but instead a selective changing of some fees which will hopefully reinforce a more business friendly approach in support of innovation.

From April 1, 2018, the EPO has implemented new fees. The changes of the fees are as follows:

OLD NEW Search fee - international search fee - supplementary international search fee 1875 1875 1775 1775 Examination fee - preliminary examination fee for an international application 1930 1830 Appeal fee - for a natural person or an entity referred to in Rule 6, paragraph 4 and 5 - for any other entity 1880 1880 1880 2255 For international applications for which the EPO has been designated as International Searching Authority (ISA) or International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA), the search and preliminary examination fees are reduced with 100 EUR. There used to be a reduction of the supplementary European Search fee by 190 EUR, applied when the international search report was drawn up by the Australian Patent Office, the Japanese Patent Office, the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Russian Federation), the Chinese Intellectual Property Office or the United States Patent and Trademark Office, but with effect from April 1, 2018, this is no longer applicable.

Considering the reduction of the international search and examination fee, and the abolition of the search fee for the Euro-PCT applications where one the aforementioned offices issue an international search report, it will be worth selecting the EPO as an ISA in filing an international application, when the application should enter the European national phase. In addition to the changes mentioned above, the appeal fee is raised for appellants who are not small and medium sized enterprises, natural persons, non profit organizations, universities or public research organizations.

The Administrative Council of the European Patent Organization sat in December 2017 and decided to change the wording of Rule 51(1) EPC to allow for payment of the third year renewal fee, up to six months before its due date. The new rule 51(1) EPC, which is applicable from April 1, 2018, reads as follows:

"A renewal fee for the European patent application in respect of the coming year shall be due on the last day of the month containing...