פברואר 1, 2013

עליה משמעותית באגרות פטנטים בישראל

ד״ר אילן כהן (שותף לשעבר), שותף בכיר
ד״ר אילן כהן (שותף לשעבר)

שותף בכיר

ריינהולד כהן ושות׳

Significant increase in patent fees in Israel in effect from 1 January, 2013. These include a marked increase in patent filing fees (approx. two-fold) and in monthly extension fees (approx. three-fold). Significant increases will also apply to initial maintenance fees.

A major portion of the new revisions to the Patent Regulations will come into effect on 1 January, 2013. Among the most significant changes are marked increases in some of the Patent Office's fees. The basic patent filing fees have been almost doubled with an increase in the current fees from NIS1,075 to NIS 2,000. There will be a marked increase also in the monthly extension fee from NIS 64 to NIS 200. There will also be a marked increase in the initial patent maintenance fees and a modest increase in renewal fees payable at the more advanced years of patent life.

The new regulations also introduce some new fees, including an additional fee for every 50 pages in the specification above 100 (excluding the pages of sequence listing) and a new patent application allowance fee. There is even a slight decrease in some fees. The main changes in the Patent Office's fees are summarized in the following table:

Description Old Fee (NIS)* New Fee (NIS)**  Remarks
Basic patent filing fee  1,075 2,000 Significant increase 
Excess claim fee, for each additional claim beyond 50 claims 527 513 Small decrease 
Excess page fee, for every 50 pages beyond the first 100 pages***  250 New fee
Extension Fee (per each month)   64 200 Fee increase  
Petition to accelerate examination  719 1,000 Fee increase  
Acceptance Fee  700 New fee

Maintenance Fee
For years 1-6 (due upon allowance)  
For years 7-10 (due at the end of 6th year)
For years 11-14 (due at the end of 10th year) 
For years 15-18 (due at the end of 14th year)
For years 19-20 (due at the end of 18th year)
Fee for entire 20 years (due upon patent grant) 

gfdg    

* Applicable until 31 December, 2012
** Applicable from 1 January, 2013
***Not included pages of sequence listings

Hitherto it was possible to suspend publication of acceptance, which was desired under a number of circumstances, e.g. to await the outcome of examination in other jurisdictions. However as of 1 January 2013 this option will no longer be available.

Note also that a small entity discount of 40% is now provided for the filing and acceptance fees of an application which does not claim any priority. A small entity is regarded as a company/ partnership having an annual turnover of less than NIS 10 million2.

Patent applications filed until and on 31 December, 2012 and maintenance fees paid up to that date will still benefit from the considerably lower existing fees. Thus, in the case of filing deadlines falling in the near future, favorable consideration should be given to perform the respective action still in the remainder of 2012.

1 New Israeli Shekel; according to the current exchange rate 1 NIS equals about US$ 0.26.
2 This is probably of minor or no significance for foreign patent applicants.

אין באמור במאמר כדי להוות עצה, הדרכה, ייעוץ או חוות-דעת בנושא, והוא מוגש כשירות ללקוח להעשרה כללית בלבד ולא לכל מטרה אחרת. בכל נושא ספציפי יש לפנות לעורכי הדין או עורכי הפטנטים הרלוונטיים במשרדנו.

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