Major Moves by the Patent and Trademark Office! Significant Adjustments to Patent Fees in Fiscal Year 2025

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), authorized by the AIA and the 2018 SUCCESS Act amendments, has put forward a proposal for the setting and adjustment of patent fees for the 2025 fiscal year. This proposal covers the setting or adjustment of 455 patent fees, including the introduction of 73 new fees, aiming to ensure the financial sustainability of the USPTO while taking into account the needs of entities of different sizes.

I. Items and Reasons for Significant Fee Increases

- Design fees: An average increase of about 50%, with the application fee rising from $220 to $300, an increase of 36%. This is to address the issue that the USPTO cannot fully recover costs in design examination, especially with the rapid growth in applications from foreign entities (micro-entities).

- Claim fees: When the total number of claims exceeds 20, the fee for each claim will increase from $100 to $200, a 100% increase; when the number of independent claims exceeds 3, the fee for each claim will rise from $480 to $600, a 25% increase. This is to prevent applicants from evading high divisional and continuation application fees by increasing the number of claims.

- Patent term extension fees: The fee for extending the term of pharmaceutical patents has increased from $1,180 to $6,700, a whopping 468% increase. This is mainly because the current fee standard is seriously mismatched with the cost of the USPTO's examination of patent term extensions.

II. Items with Small Fee Increases

In addition to the above-mentioned significant fee increases, some patent annual fees will also have small increases to ensure that the USPTO can continue to provide high-quality services.

III. Items with Fee Reductions

Although most fees have increased, the USPTO has also considered the actual needs of applicants and reduced some fees. For example, the fee for extending the term of a provisional patent application has dropped significantly, with the maximum extension fee decreasing from $3,160 to $800, a 75% reduction.

IV. Newly Added Fee Items

- Post-final rejection reconsideration pilot program: A new fee of $500 has been introduced to encourage applicants to seek further examination opportunities after a final rejection of their patents.

- Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) fees: Additional surcharges will be charged based on the cumulative number of cited documents listed in the application. When the cumulative number of information items cited exceeds 50, 100-200, or more than 200, fees of $200, $500 (after deducting previous fees), and $800 (after deducting previous fees) will be paid respectively. This is to encourage applicants to use IDS submissions more reasonably and reduce the burden on examiners.

- Fees for late-filed applications or benefit claims: $2,200 will be charged for applications or benefit claims filed after 5 years from the earliest priority date; $3,500 will be charged for those filed after 8 years from the earliest priority date. This new fee will apply to "late-filed" divisional, continuation, and partial continuation patent applications. Since maintenance fees are calculated based on the issuance date, while the patent term is calculated based on the earliest priority date, a new tiered fee system has been established for continuation applications filed more than five or eight years after the earliest priority date, or applications with delayed priority claims. This fee will affect approximately 27% of continuation applications. The purpose of this fee is to partially compensate for the loss of maintenance fee income due to applicants' late filing of continuation applications, or to recover the front-end costs of extending priority claims.

V. Preferential Policies

Applicants eligible for small entity and micro-entity fee reductions will continue to enjoy corresponding proportion of preferential treatment to reduce their financial burden.

VI. U.S. Patent Annual Fees

U.S. patent annual fees will increase slightly by 5%. The specific adjustments to the fees are as shown in the figure:

VII. Conclusion

The adjustment of patent fees by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) aims to ensure the financial sustainability of the institution while balancing the interests of entities of different sizes. For applicants, it will be more important to understand these changes and reasonably plan their patent application strategies.