March 07, 2018

Patent fee changes in UK as of April 2018

The fees of the UK IPO have been the same since 2010, but that is going to change soon. The UK IPO has issued a breakdown of changes to the official fees involved in the patent protection. The updated patent fees, increased for the most pre-grant procedures, will come into force on the 6th of April, 2018.

It will be valuable to bear in mind the following revisions:

- Application fee will be tripled comparing to the current amount and making it 60 GBP. A 25% surcharge will be added in case the fee is not paid simultaneously with filing.

- Search and examination fees for both national and international (PCT national phase) applications will be increased by approximately 15-20%.

- The newly revised fee structure in the UK becomes similar to the US and European patent systems. Namely, fees for excess pages and excess claims have been introduced. Applicants who have more than 35 pages are to pay 10 GBP for each additional page. Also, applicants who have more than 25 claims in the application are to pay 20 GBP for each additional claim.

- Renewal fees will be increased on average by 2-4% for each year starting from the 12th year. Meanwhile, renewal fees for the years 5-11 stay unchanged.

- A patent application form will be considered as filed upon receipt of the full fee payment, no partial payment of fees will be allowed anymore.

- No grant fee is stipulated. However, if during examination an applicant will have to amend the application increasing number of claims and/or pages, the UK IPO will issue a Notification of Intention to Grant containing sum of an additional fee to cover. It should be paid within a 2 months period (with possibility to extend this term by 2 additional months).

In the meantime, the prospective applicants planning to make payments during March and up to the 5th of April, will enjoy the current and lower fees. Please also note that the UK IPO will be closed on Monday, the 2nd of April, 2018 due to a public holiday.

For more detailed information as to the patent filings in the UK and other intellectual property matters we invite you to visit our applicant’s guide. Also you can use our quotation system to calculate the current costs now, while the new fees will be updated in the system as soon as the changes come into effect.

Author: Jessica Chester
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