Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

The US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has announced plans to revise the fees for basic patent and trade mark applications, starting from 2003. Under the proposed price schedule, the cost of filing and examination of new patents will be doubled.

The new fees are outlined in a proposed bill that was submitted to the Congress by the Office of Management and Budget. If the senate approves the proposal, the new patent fees will go into effect in October 2003.

Currently, the application to file a patent costs $740 in the US, and this fee includes the cost of examination. Under the proposed price plan, the filing fee will be separated from the examination fee. The filing fee would be $300, and a fee of $1,250 would be paid for examination. According to the PTO document, the proposed fees have been “rounded”, so that the suggested prices will be “more convenient to the user”.

The proposal also includes suggestions to outsource the search for prior art (earlier inventions related to the patent application). The Patent Office Professional Association (the patent examiners’ union) opposes the plan. Its president said: “Most examiners think that it would be disastrous.”

The American Intellectual Property Law Association also expressed concerns regarding the proposal.

Michael Kirk, the executive director, said:

“We are not opposed to a fee increase if that fee increase is needed to provide better quality and move forward with electronic filing. We don’t support raising money for other programs on the back of trade mark and patent applications.”

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