UK Patent Office Wishes To Increase Fees
In a recent consultation document, the UK IPO suggests a significant increase on UK patent fees.
Here are some of the proposed changes are:
- Increase of search fee from £100 to £200.
- Increase of examination fee from £70 to £150.
- Increase of the search of an International application from £80 to £160.
- To increase the discount for E-filing to £30.
- To introduce a fee of £20 for each claim above 15 in a patent application.
- To increase patent renewal fees. Increase on first 12 years will be minor while for the next 7 years they will be substantial.
The patent office requests the public to comment on these changes. the fear is that the changes will discourage applicants from filing patents. The patent office’s case is “it is still cheap under the discount”.
So here is our reply: dear patent office, please please please don’t do this. The UK IPO is a rare example to a government agency that operates professionally and quickly without burdening the public with high fees. The suggested increase will put the UK IPO in line with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in terms of fees and will make significantly discounrage applicants from filing patents.
A 10% increase is reasonable although we don’t think there is a true need for that. Doubling the fees is just too much. Do not do that.