Changes to Patent and Trademark Fees Under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005

Because of legislation recently passed by the United States Congress, certain USPTO Fees are to increase in a range of 15-25%. These changes became immediately effective upon enactment and signing of the bill by the President, which occurred on December 8, 2004.

Most notable of the changes include:

• Revised Patent Fees
• Significant Increases in Excess Claims Fees
• Separate Fees for Filing a Patent, Searching a Patent and Examining a Patent (all due on filing)
• Additional Fees for Applications Whose Specifications and Drawings Exceed 100 Pages (NOTE: This provision excludes sequence and computer program listings filed in electronic form from the page count calculation)
• Revised Trademark Application Filing Fees

For your convenience, we have attached a table (see link below) illustrating the new fees as compared to the previous fees. We began paying the new fees immediately after enactment. In addition, we will automatically request and pay for Filing, Searching and Examining all patent applications handled by this firm. The USPTO advises close monitoring of its website: www.uspto.gov, where additional information will be posted as it becomes available. We urge our clients to monitor the USPTO website for updates, as well as to check our website at www.oblon.com for further developments.

View the Schedule of USPTO Fees by clicking on the PDF File link above.

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