UK-IPO: more money please

The UK-IPO have just announced a consultation on proposals for introducing changes to the fees charged for getting and keeping UK patents. The proposed changes are many and various, and can be digested in detail by reading the consultation document itself. These include:

• substantial (roughly doubling) increases to search and examination fees;
• the introduction of excess claims fees (although not quite at the level of the EPO);
• increased renewal fees;
• a new fee for contested proceedings; and
• a new fee for recording registrable transactions under section 32.

The IPO's reasoning for many of the increases includes the fact that (amazingly) no substantial increases have been implemented since the early 1990s, and there apparently should be some 're-balancing' of the way the IPO's work is funded, since the cost of search and examination is at the moment mostly paid for by renewal fees.

The IPO want to know what you think about it, and will be welcoming answers to their 11 questions in the consultation until 12 October 2009.