Patent Office Fee Adjustments Effective January 2025

The following article first appeared in the News & Insights section of Carmody Torrance Sandak Hennessey’s website. It is reposted here with permission.

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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has announced fee adjustments effective Jan. 19, 2025, introducing both across-the-board increases and targeted changes.

While most fees will see a 7.5% across-the-board increase, the USPTO is also introducing targeted adjustments aimed at encouraging timely filings and managing growing workloads.

The Patent Fee Schedule highlights the differences between the current fee and the upcoming Jan. 19 fee adjustment for large (i.e., undiscounted) and small entities.

Key Highlights

1. Excess Claim Fees: The cost for excess claims in a utility application is rising sharply:
   • Each independent claim over three increases from $480 to $600.
   • Each claim over 20 doubles from $100 to $200.
2. Design Patent Surge: Filing, search, and examination fees for design patents will rise by approximately 48%.
3. Request for Continued Examination: Second (and subsequent) RCE fees see a 43% jump to $2,860.
4. Procrastination Will Cost You: Continuing applications filed six-plus years after the earliest benefit date will now incur a $2,700 surcharge, jumping to $4,000 if filed nine-plus years later.
5. Unintentional Delay? Petitions filed two-plus years after a missed deadline will now cost a steep $3,000.
6. Information Disclosure Statements Fees: USPTO is instituting a new surcharge based on the total number of references cited in a single application. This fee applies to all pending applications and is cumulative.
   • For an application containing less than 50 references total, there is no surcharge.
   • For an application containing between 51 and 100 references total, there is surcharge of $200.
   • For an application containing between 101 and 200 references total, there is surcharge of $500 (less any amount previously paid).
   • For an application containing a total of 201 references or more, there is surcharge of $500 (less any amount previously paid).
   • This surcharge is not discounted for small and micro-entities.

As an example, if you have a pending application and have cited 99 references in an IDS, you do not currently owe any fees.

However, if an IDS is filed after Jan. 19, 2025 and cites two additional references, the total number of references cited in the application would be 101.

Therefore, you would incur a fee of $500 because you have exceeded 100 references and have not paid anything yet (if only one reference was cited, the total number of references would be 100 and the fee would be $200).

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About the author: Jennifer Calcagni is a partner with Carmody Torrance, practicing in the area of intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, and copyrights.