New Rules regarding the reduction of the search and examination fees for Euro-PCT applications

On April 2018, new rules entered into force regarding the search and examinations fees for Euro-PCT applications due at the European Patent Office.

Please find below a brief overview of the changes

 1. For patent applications for which the International Search Authority was the Australian Patent Office (AU), the Chinese Patent Office (CN), the Japanese Patent Office (JP), the Korean Patent Office (KR), the Russian Patent Office (RU) or the US Patent Office US, for the Supplementary European Search, the full Search fee of 1300 Euro is due, instead of 1110 Euro previously. 

2. The examination fee is reduced by 75%, instead of 50% previously, for patent applications for which the International Search Authority (ISA) or the Supplementary International Search Authority (SISA) was :

- the European Patent Office (EPO),  

- the Austrian Patent Office (AT), the Spanish Patent Office (ES) or the Swedish Patent Office (ES), and the patent application is filed up to and including 31.03.2020,

- the Finnish Patent Office (FI), the Turkish Patent Office, the Nordic Patent Office (XN) or the Visegrad Patent Institute (XV), and the patent application is filed from 1 July 2005 up to and including 31.03.2020,

if the EPO drew up the International Preliminary Report on Patentability (IPER) and provided that the examination is to be performed on the subject-matter covered by the IPER.

3. The new amounts of the search and examination fees will be binding on payments made on or after  1 April 2018. 

If, within six months of 1 April 2018, a fee is paid in due time but only in the amount due before 1 April 2018, it is deemed to have been validly paid if the deficit is made good within two months of an invitation to that effect from the European Patent Office.

4. For more details on the new rules regarding the search and examination fees due at the EPO, you may refer to the corresponding communication from the EPO available at : http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/official-journal/2018/03/a26/2018-a26.pdf.

Source: Lavoix.eu