USPTO Fees to Go Up on October 2, 2020
09/22/2020Just when you thought you had seen every challenge 2020 could offer, we are reminded that patent fees charged by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will go up about 5% on October 2 of this year.
This adjustment has been in development since 2018, with the USPTO noting, “The overall strategy of the Final Rule is to establish a fee schedule that generates sufficient multi-year revenue to recover the aggregate costs of maintaining USPTO patent-related operations and accomplishing the USPTO’s patent-related strategic goals.”
That is, the USPTO will be able to use money generated by the adjustment to invest in improving the quality of patent examination times, implementing a modern infrastructure to optimize interacting with the USPTO, and most importantly, “…to provide stability to USPTO operations, even in times of financial fluctuations.”
For a full breakdown of patent fee adjustments, view the Table of Patent Fee Adjustments. A notable change includes requests for expedited examination by large entities going from $900 to $1,600, while issue and maintenance fees are going up.
