IP Australia Set to Boost Fees
29 October 2012
IP Australia has announced it is seeking government approval to increase patent fees, according to media reports. If approved, the fees will likely come into effect from August 1, 2010.
Under IP Australia’s proposal, total fee revenue for the fiscal year July 2010 to June 2011 will increase by 6.8%. Not all patent fees will be raised, and trademark and design fees are not expected to rise.
According to lawyers at Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick, the proposal will introduce one new fee: A fee of A$100 will be payable for each additional “excess” claim introduced into a patent application after acceptance for patent grant.
“An excess claim is any claim over 20 at the time of acceptance,” the firm writes on its website. “This fee is in response to a practice of deleting excess claims during examination in order to minimize the acceptance fee, and then reinserting those claims after acceptance.”
The firm notes that there are also significant fee increases for patent renewals from the 11th year.
