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Patent Law

: Patently Obvious

Patent Practice: Annual Practitioner Maintenance Fee.

By Dennis Crouch, Esq.

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[NEW RULES] The USPTO has announced final rules to implement an annual practitioner maintenance fee. According to the new rules effective December 17, 2008, a practitioner who fails "to pay the annual practitioner maintenance fee required under § 11.8(d) [will] be administratively suspended." Easy to remember, the Fee under Section 11.8 is $118.

What is the point: The $118 fee will raise two or three million dollars for the PTO. Although that money is useful, the primary purpose of the fee is not to raise money. Rather, it an easy way to cull the list of registered practitioners by removing those who are not making money as patent attorneys. In the words of the office, the purposes of the fee include "protecting the public, preserving the integrity of the Office, and maintaining high professional standards."

When folks forget to pay:

[A] paper submitted in good faith by a practitioner who does not know that he or she has been administratively suspended for failure to pay the annual practitioner maintenance fee will be

treated as unsigned. In the case of a new complete application, the applicant will receive a filing date because the signature of an attorney or agent on transmittal papers is not required. In the case of an unsigned bona fide response to an Office action, the submission will be treated in accordance with 37 CFR

1.135(c), and applicant may be given a new period of time to supply the omission. Practitioners should be aware, however, that submission of a response having an omission may affect patent term adjustment pursuant to 37 CFR 1.704(c)(7). In the case of an issue fee payment, an unsigned issue fee transmittal form may lead to abandonment of the application, in which case a petition to revive would be required.

Who can afford this?

The Office estimates that, in 2006, the average annual income in the United States of solo practitioners was $231,777; of patent attorneys who are partners in private firms, $434,464; of patent attorneys who are associates in private firms, $152,677; and of corporate IP attorneys, $198,109; and the average annual salary of patent agents in a firm in the United States was $92,761. AIPLA Report of the Economic Survey 2007.

Full post as published by Patently Obvious on November 17, 2008 (boomark / email).