USPTO News: USPTO Announces Revisions to Patent Fees

    By Christopher P. Singer --

In a Notice published in the Federal Register (73 Fed. Reg. 47534) on Thursday, August 14, 2008, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that certain patent fee amounts are being adjusted to reflect fluctuations in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for financial year 2009.  The effective date for the new fee schedule is October 2, 2008.

The USPTO spends a good deal of ink demonstrating the methodology used to calculate the fees as well as discussing the statutory authority that allows for Office-based fee adjustments.  Much of the discussion is spent on analyzing the impact of the fee changes on small entities, as required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act.

The heart of the Notice is found in Table 1, which summarizes the new fee schedules by C.F.R. citation and fee description:

Those seeking additional information are invited to contact Walter Schlueter by e-mail (Walter.Schlueter@uspto.gov), phone (571.272.6299), or facsimile (571.273.6299).

Comments

[anon]

These numbers seem off. I think the table that shows the fee increases is Table 3, is it not?

Thanks.

[Chris Singer]

Dear anon:
You are right. Tables 2 and 3 reflect the adjusted fee amounts set forth in the rules as amended. Table 1 "sets out the fee amounts that would be published in a final rule in the event that legislation extending patent and trademark fee provisions of the fiscal year 2005 Consolidated Appropriatens Act into fiscal year 2009 is not enacted." Tables 2 and 3 as provided in the Federal Register Notice describe the small entity fee and non-small entity increases specifically. We are revising the table data to reflect the proper amounts.

Sorry for the confusion and thanks for pointing out the error.

Chris