The USPTO recently posted its version of a Black Friday discount from now until January 19th. On November 19th, the Office announced that it will be implementing fee increases for both patents and trademarks. These new fees, however, do not go into effect until January 19, 2025. This provides a small window to save significant fees by accelerating filings to beat the 1/19 deadline.
While at CueCards, we normally recommend regular audits of existing IP issues, a focused audit this year may pay greater dividends by avoiding costly increases at the PTO. In the Black Friday spirit, CueCards is offering a 10% discount on an IP audit directed towards identifying fee saving opportunities from now until December 10th. Please be sure to include code BFAUDIT in your email.
A link to all of the fee increases appears at the end of this article, but I have consolidated increases that should help IP owners plan for 2025. Here are the highlights. Filing fees for patent applications are increasing up to
Continuations/Divisionals
If you have been keeping an application pending for more than 5 years, the Office will now implement a surcharge for any continuing applications that include a priority claim extending back more than 5 years. A claim of more than 5 years will cost $2000 (undiscounted) and a claim of more than 8 years will cost $3500. The basic filing for regular, continuing or divisional applications in utility patent applications has increased modestly (approximately 10%). Consequently, filings with a priority claims of less than 5 years will not be greatly effected. However longer priority claims that can be filed before January 19th will benefit greatly from an early filing.
Design Patent Applications
The Office has implemented large scale increases for design patent applications. Filing fees and search fees will increase up to 88% on January 19th. In addition, issue fees for designs will increase 76%. The Office has seen significant increases in design patent filings as innovators continue to see the increased value of having design protection for their creations.
Notable New Fees
In addition to the fee increases noted above, the office has doubled the fees for filing claims in excess of the 20 permitted with the basic filing fee, and added a new surcharge for information disclosure statements that include over 50, 100 or 200 citations. These fees respectively are $200, $500 and $800.
Overall, for companies in a position to make filings affected by these fee increases before the January 19th effective date, can save considerable costs. To perform an audit to evaluate potential filings and timing contact us as soon as possible.
