inovia doesn't directly manage payment of patent
annuities (unless they're due at national phase entry), but the
topic comes up frequently with clients who use
our foreign filing platform to validate their European
patents.
Background
Before a European patent application is granted, renewal fees
are paid to the EPO to keep the application pending. A renewal fee
is initially payable at the end of the month within which the
two-year anniversary of the original filing date falls, and then
annually on the same date while the European application is
pending.
For PCT cases, the "original filing date" is the PCT
international filing date (note: this is not the date the
application entered the European regional phase). Note, however,
that if the deadline falls before the 31 month deadline, it is
automatically extended to that date without penalty. This will
happen if there was no priority document, or the PCT application
was lodged only a few months after the earliest
