100% increase expected in Official Fee for Patent Matters, early filing recommended
DearColleagues, We wish to inform you that there is a recent notification in the Official Gazette dated May 6, 2013 proposing a hike in Patents official fee. The fee schedule changes include an increase in the overall patent fee structure including fee for filing, extra claim fee, extra page fee, request for Examination fee, annuities and most other fee. The IPO is looking to double the current official fee for most matters (particularly new applications, excess claims and pages fee, request for examination, annuities) and also add a 10% surcharge for Paper filing. This could have a significant impact on costs of new applications having large number of pages and/ or claims. Thus, we would highly recommend early filing of such applications in India before the fee increase. We also recommend early payment of any upcoming annuities. Presently, the Ministry has called in for objections on the said notification by June 21, 2013 and most likely it would be tabled for approval before the Parliament during the Monsoon session beginning from July 26, 2013. Although we see no immediate consequences of the notification and do not have a cut-off date for implementation of these fee changes, it is expected to be implemented in the coming months (within 2-4 months). In view of the said notification we are sending this alert as a brief guidance to all our associates who may wish to aware our mutual and prospective clients of this development. Accordingly, if your clients are considering to file any Ordinary, Convention or PCT Application in India in the near future, and want to avail the benefits of lower fee structure, it is advisable to take immediate steps and file the said applications at the earliest (within July 2013 would be a safe deadline). We will keep you updated of future developments in this matter. In the meanwhile if you have any comments or suggestions to be placed before the local IP groups, please feel free to contact us.
