Alert 325 Europe - New fee regime at European Patent Office


On 1 April 2009, the EPO adopted a new schedule for payment of official fees relating to European patent applications. The new fee structure affects the fees for excess claims, number of pages in the application, and designation of states.

Excess Claims
The normal filing fee still covers 15 claims. For excess claims from 16 to 50, paper claim fee of 200 Euro is payable, as before. Under the new schedule, each claim from 51 on attracts a fee of 500 Euro. Previously all claims in excess of 15 attracted a fee of 200 Euro. These claims fees are payable when filing directly at the EPO, or when entering the EPO regional phase following a PCT application. They apply only to applications filed or entering the regional phase on or after 1 April 2009.

Given the potential for excess claims fees to dwarf all other fees for an EPO application, we advise revision of the claims at filing or entry into the regional phase to make best use of multiple dependencies and to evaluate the benefit of including more than 15 claims.

Number of Pages
A new fee is payable on filing or entry into the regional phase for applications more than 35 pages long (not including sequence listings). A fee of 12 Euro per page is payable at this stage, replacing the corresponding fee at the grant phase under the previous schedule. Reformatting an application to make the most efficient use of page payout can be helpful to reduce this fee, especially for very large applications.

These fees apply to applications filed or entering the regional phase on or after 1 April 2009. For applications filed before this date, the previous fee schedule applies with the per page fee assessed at the grant stage.

Designation of States
A single designation fee of 500 Euro replaces the previous per state fee of 85 Euro (up to a maximum of 595 Euro). Applicants no longer have the option of reducing costs by designating fewer states. As most applicants were already designating all states, this change has the effect of reducing the fee payable. These fees apply to applications filed or entering the regional phase on or after 1 April 2009. For applications filed before this date, the previous fee schedule applies with the per state fee payable up to the 595 Euro maximum.

The payment of a designation fee is mandated by the European Patent Convention. However, in its current form, it has become effectively a further filing or examination fee. 

Our Comment
This new fee schedule is clearly aimed at discouraging applications that are large or have a large number of claims. Where such applications are necessary, substantial savings might be possible through a pre-filing review and reformatting. In particular, careful selection of the claims to be examined could lead to a major saving.

The new fee schedule has no effect on the fees payable to the EPO as International Searching Authority under the PCT. It is therefore still possible to get an EPO search and written opinion via the PCT at the same cost, irrespective of the number of claims submitted. This can provide useful assistance when entering the EPO regional phase if the number of claims is to be reduced.