We’ve written an Introductory Guide to Patent Renewals – perfect for patent holders or patent applicants who are new to the patent renewals process.
Patent Renewal Fees (also known as Patent Maintenance Fees, Annuities or Annual Fees) are fees that you must pay on a regular basis in order to keep your patent in force.
Even if you made a World or European patent application, when your patent is granted it is handled by the Patent Offices in each of the individual countries in which you have requested to have the patent enforced. The renewal fees are then determined by that country’s Patent Office. They can range from in the region of £50 to thousands of pounds.
The exact rules around renewal fees differ widely across each country. In some geographies, you will need to pay to keep an application active, in others you will only need to pay renewal fees once the patent has been granted.
You usually have to pay fees in each country annually (though there are exceptions like the US and New Zealand where you pay less frequently). If you don’t pay, you will lose your patent rights in that country.
It can be a complex process so to make sure that your renewals fees are paid accurately and on time, most companies use a service that handles all of this for you. There are some additional fees that you will need to budget for in order to pay a renewals service to make your renewals. Some companies can charge you very high professional fees – up to 50% again on top of the Patent Office renewal fee.
RenewalsDesk is the simple, reliable patent renewal service where you can save money on patent renewal fees using our self-service, cloud-based tools.
You can read the full Introductory Guide to Patent Renewal on the RenewalsDesk website.
April 20th 2014