EPO Fee Changes
By Ashleigh Kirs - Patent Attorney onOn 01 April 2024, the European Patent Office (EPO) implemented fee changes on the procedural fees relating to patent filings based on the nature of the Applicant. What this means is, rather positively, very “small” businesses / organisations, or individuals, referred to by the EPO as “micro-entities”, are entitled to a reduction in EPO fees (in relation to both direct European patent applications and Euro-PCT applications entering the European phase).
In essence, if an Applicant qualifies as a micro-entity, they may be eligible for a 30% reduction in the main EPO official fees associated with the patent process. In the past, reductions have been available at the EPO for certain fees (e.g. examination fee) if the Applicant met certain language/nationality requirements. Surprisingly and indeed fortunately, micro-entities get a flat rate 30% reduction across not only all of the standard procedural fees (e.g. filing, search, examination et.), but also renewal fees.
In order to qualify as a micro-entity, the Applicant needs to meet the following criteria:
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They must have filed < 5 European patent applications in the last 5 years (i.e. 5 years preceding the filing date of the application in question*);
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They must be a “microenterprise” (i.e. have < 10 full-time employees and annual turnover of < €2 million), individual person, non-profit, university or public research organisation.
Where there are multiple Applicants, all of them must fulfil all of the above criteria.
Importantly, if the Applicant status changes at all, the EPO must be notified and all fees paid subsequent to said change must be paid at the full original rate (provided no other reductions apply). For example, if a European patent application is transferred from a micro-entity owner to a new non-micro-entity owner, the new owner will be required to pay any subsequent fees at the full undiscounted rate – conversely the reverse effect also applies where an application is transferred from a non-micro-entity owner to a micro-entity owner.
Although this fee reduction only came into effect in April 2024, micro-entities with any fees due after this date will benefit from the reduction. In other words, it doesn’t matter if your application was filed before 01 April 2024 – any fees due from now will still be eligible for the reduction.
A word of caution however - if an Applicant incorrectly pays a reduced fee when they were not entitled to the micro-entity status, the fee may be considered “not paid” and a possible consequence is that the application may be deemed withdrawn. Therefore, it is important to be certain that the Applicant qualifies for the micro-entity status to avoid any adverse consequences.
Overall, these fee reductions are clearly a positive incentive to encourage smaller business owners and individuals to innovate more, and in turn protect their inventions using the European patent system.
*Where the application in question is a divisional – it is the date of receipt of the divisional application to the EPO.
Ashleigh Kirs
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