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3 October 2016Patents

USPTO seeks comments on patent fee adjustments

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is seeking public comments on its proposal to adjust patent fees.

On September 30, in the Federal Register, the USPTO announced  that it was proposing set or adjust certain patent fees.

Authorised by the America Invents Act (AIA), the adjusted fees are projected to recover the aggregate estimated cost of the USPTO’s patent operations, Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) operations, and administrative services.

The USPTO conducted a fee review last year to assess the effectiveness of the existing fee schedule.

It developed several fee change proposals, which were consolidated and presented to the Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) in October 2015 as an initial fee setting proposal.

In November last year, the PPAC conducted a public hearing and accepted public comments before preparing a written report in response to the initial proposal.

USPTO considered the report, released in February 2016, when it developed the proposed adjustments.

, Large entity utility filing, search, and examination fee rates are proposed to increase to $300 (+$20), $660 (+$60), and $760 (+$40) respectively. Small and micro entity discounts remain available.

The inter partes review request fee, with up to 20 claims, increases to $14,000 (+$5,000) and the large entity design filing, search, and examination fee rates are proposed to increase to $200 (+$20), $160 (+$40), and $600 (+$140), respectively.

The last major patent fee setting using AIA authority became effective in March 2013.

The full proposals can be viewed here.  The comment period closes on Friday, December 2.

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