By Christopher P. Singer --
The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) recently published a Notification (No. 189) describing an amended fee schedule which will take effect on July 1, 2008. The new fee schedule modifies the international filing fee as well as the fee reductions for applicants who file electronically. The new international filing fee is set at 1,330 Swiss francs (CHF), which represents a 5% decrease from the current fee of 1,400 CHF. The supplemental "excess pages" fee for applications over 30 pages in length will remain at 15 CHF for each page over 30. The handling fee associated with the international preliminary examination remains at 200 CHF. In addition, the fees will be discounted by 90% (further reduced from 75%) for applicants of certain States (listed here).
Unfortunately, thanks to the weakening of the dollar, the news is not so good for applicants paying fees in U.S. dollars, as the equivalent filing fee will be $1,338 (up from the current fee of $1,263). In addition, the supplemental fee for each page above 30 will increase from $14 to $15. Consequently, the fee for sequence listings filed in compliance with PCT Administrative Instruction section 801 (electronic medium only) will similarly increase by $400 to $6000 (this fee is set at 400 times the supplemental page fee). Further, the handling fee is likely to increase to $201 (up from $171). On a positive note, the reduction in fees for E-filing a PCT application with the US/RO will be further reduced by about 10% from the current schedule.
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