Fees Rising: USPTO Proposes New Fees in Search of New Revenue

Patent – Patently-O 2016-10-08

The USPTO has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on patent and PTAB fees with the goal of raising revenue in order to improve patent quality and examination timeliness. Public comments are due by December 2, 2016.

The proposal includes:

Major increase in inter partes review fees – from $23,000 to $30,500 (petition + institution). Similar increases for PGR and CBM.
Large fee increase for patent applications with > 3 independent claims or > 20 dependent claims
Large fee increase for design patent search, examination, and issue fees — hopefully the PTO will increase its quality on that front.
New fee for sequence listing submissions of > 300 MB ($1000) and > 800 MB ($10,000).
Ex parte appeals +25% (up to $3,500)
Standard fees for utility applications are relatively steady => only about 10% increase.