IPO PRACTICE ON PAYMENTS OF PATENT FEES

01/01/2008

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The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has begun work on amending its Regulations Governing Patent Fees. The main points are as follows:

．Fees for filing requests for substantive examination of invention patent applications will be charged according to the number of patent claims contained in each patent application.

．An applicant who withdraws an invention patent application within a certain period may apply for a refund of the substantive examination fee. But the fee will not be refunded if the applicant has already received notice of an examination opinion, or an examination decision. The "certain period" referred to above varies as follows:

1.If a request for substantive examination is applied for at the time of patent filing or during the procedural examination of the patent application, one year from date of completing the procedural examination.

2.If a request for substantive examination is applied for after completion of the procedural examination, one year from the date of applying for substantive examination.

We will continue to follow up the progress of the amendments and keep readers updated.