| Patent fee changes to take effect on January 19 As part of our regular assessment of fees under our fee-setting authority, we are announcing updated patents fees in a final rule, effective January 19, 2025. These fee adjustments will provide us with sufficient funding to effectively and efficiently administer the U.S. patent system and continue progress toward achieving our strategic goals. Our updated patent fees provide us with additional resources to reflect the budgetary impact of new discounts enacted under the Unleashing American Innovators Act for small businesses, independent inventors, and others who qualify as "small entities" or "micro entities." Additionally, this allows us to maintain efficient operations and support for our 14,000+ employees across the country dedicated to serving American innovators. Both the updated patent and trademark fees will enable us to accomplish our mission to drive U.S. innovation, inclusive capitalism, and global competitiveness. Our patent proposal is shaped by public feedback we've received since we published a Federal Register Notice on April 20, 2023, that announced plans to exercise our authority to set or adjust patent fees. On May 18, 2023, the Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) held a public hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, and invited members of the public to submit comments on fee adjustments. Following the hearing, PPAC provided us with a written report detailing the public comments received and its recommendations regarding the proposed fees. We considered and analyzed all comments, advice, and recommendations, and on April 3, 2024, published a notice of proposed rulemaking on setting and adjusting patent fees. We again invited additional comments which we considered, and in response decided not to move forward with three targeted proposals and revised an additional three targeted proposals. The three fee changes we are not moving forward include: - a new fee for After Final Consideration Pilot 2.0 requests;
- a targeted increase to the patent term adjustment fee; and
- a terminal disclaimer tiered fees.
The three revised fee changes (and their revisions) include: - upward adjustment of the timing thresholds for continuing applications;
- substantial reduction to the adjusted patent term extension fee; and
- elimination of the proposed new tier for third and subsequent requests for continued examination, and corresponding adjustments to the existing fee for second and subsequent requests.
Responses to these comments are included in the final rule. "Our updated patent fees will allow us to enhance patent examination quality, achieve patent pendency goals, and continue investing in modern information technology systems and architecture," said Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO Kathi Vidal. "We appreciate all the public feedback we received as we continue to work to serve America's innovators and drive our nation's competitiveness." The America Invents Act of 2011 permits the agency to set and/or adjust individual patent fees above, below, or equal to the cost of particular services, so long as the aggregate revenues for all patent fees recover the aggregate estimated costs of the patent operation. For more information on these fee adjustments, please visit the fee setting section of the USPTO website. | | | Having trouble accessing links in this email? Your email server security software may be altering the links. Contact your IT or email administrator and ask them to "allow-list" links-1.govdelivery.com and links-2.govdelivery.com to ensure you can access all content in this communication. Stay connected with the USPTO by subscribing to regular email updates. Visit our subscription center at www.uspto.gov/subscribe to update or change your email preferences. This email was sent from an unmonitored mailbox. To contact us, please visit our website www.uspto.gov/about/contacts. To ensure that you continue to receive our news and notices, please modify your email filters to allow mail from subscriptioncenter@subscriptions.uspto.gov. | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment