USPTO Fee Changes – What You Need To Know

Managing international patent, design, and  trade mark portfolios is a balance between maximising protection and controlling costs. For this reason, it is important to pay attention to official fee increases as and when they are published.

The latest increases by the European Patent Office in April 2024 were effectively identified as being inflationary increases. The same cannot really be said of the finalised fee schedule that was released by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on November 20th, and which will take effect on January 19, 2025 for patents, and January 18, 2025 for trade mark fees.

This schedule will impact 433 patent fees, including the introduction of 52 new fees. The headlines are that there are some across the board increases for example annuity fees of approximately 7.5%, specific upfront prosecution fees associated with filing an application increasing by about 10%, and then there are some specific targeted fees where the increases are