USPTO Fee Increase Notice - December 2004
22 United States Patent and Trademark Office Fee Increases
USPTO fees have increased due to the signing of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, which encompasses intellectual property matters. Patent applications filed on or after December 8th, 2004 will be affected by the increase. Trademark filing fees will remain the same until the USPTO takes the necessary administrative measures to give effect to the new fees.
The new USPTO fees will significantly increase the filing costs of a patent application. The new basic filing fee (or national fee), search fee, examination fee, and application size fee apply to national patent applications (other than provisional applications) filed on or after December 8, 2004, and to international patent applications in which the basic national fee is paid on or after December 8, 2004. The combined filing fee includes the search fee and examination fee and totals $1,000.00 U. S. for a large entity, compared to the previous filing fee of $790.00 U. S.
The most significant increase, however, is in the excess claim fee. Previously the cost for each independent claims in excess of three (3) was $88.00 U. S. per claim. This is now increased to $200.00 U. S. per claim in excess of three (3). Similarly, the previous cost for the total number of claims in excess of twenty (20) was $18.00 U. S. per claim. This is now increased to $50.00 U. S. per claim in excess of twenty (20).
In addition the new fees include an application size fee, which basically requires an additional fee for any patent application whose specification and drawings exceed 100 sheets of paper. The cost for each 50 sheets in excess of 100 is $250.00 U S. The application size fee does not include sequence and program listings.
A schedule of the new fees can be found on the USPTO website at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/qs/ope/fee2004dec08.htm
For additional information, please contact one of Bereskin & Parr's professionals or the USPTO Contact Center at (703) 308-4357 or (800) 786-9199.
