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Watch out: EPO fee increases ahead

By David

As from tomorrow, as all European patent attorneys will already know, virtually all fees payable to the EPO will be going up. Some of them (claims fees and renewal fees in particular) will be rising very steeply indeed (see IPKat commentary here), while others are rising by only be a few percent. Another point to be noted is that as from tomorrow it will no longer be possible to pay fees to the EPO by cheque (the IPKat wonders: does anyone still does this?).

All the details are available from the EPO here. The changes have also already been made to the IPKat's own version of EPC2000, which some may find useful as a quick reference guide.

The IPKat wonders, given that the claims fee increases are supposed to be 'budget neutral' rather than a way of gouging patentees and paying for retiring EPO staff, how patentees and their attorneys expect to see the total amount they pay for claims changing over the next few months. Will they be rising, staying the same, or falling?

Full post as published by IPKat on March 31, 2008 (boomark / email).