THE British and European patent offices have started a price war, so it will
now be cheaper for inventors to protect their ideas.
The British Patent Office introduced cuts of 20 per cent on 1 January, so it
now costs an inventor £225 in official fees to obtain a patent instead of
£285. The cut only benefits inventors who pursue their application until a
patent is granted. This is because it still costs £25 to file an initial
application and £130 for a search to see if anything similar has been done
before. The reduction comes in the fee payable for a further examination, during
which the Patent Office decides whether the idea is truly a new invention. This
fee has come down from £130 to £70.
Meanwhile, the European Patent Office will reduce its fees on 1 July, to mark
its 20th anniversary. The main cut applies to fees payable for each of the 18
countries in which a European patent is effective, and it will cost an inventor
DM150 (£56) per country designated, rather than DM350.
The cuts apply only to official fees. Inventors must still pay at least
£150 an hour to employ a patent agent to draft an application, and they
will also need a translator to put the specification into the languages of the
countries covered.
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