The USPTO has announced significant fee increases for your patent applications to take effect 2025 January 19. Many changes are cost adjustments to cover inflation, but others are designed to discourage you from availing yourself of certain options.
Overview of increased patent fees in the new year
Since 2012 the USPTO has had the authority to set its fees on a cost-recovery basis. We call these Official Fees (OFees) as opposed to our fees, Agent Fees (AFees). For 2025, the patent office increased most fees by 7.5% with many exceptions. The OFees shown here are undiscounted so small and micro entities pay 50% or 75% less in most cases.
The cost of filing a patent is up
The fees you care about those for filing, searching, and examination, are going up by 12%. The claim fees are going up by as much as 100%. Indeed, the patent office would like to limit you to three (3) independent and 20 claims.
| Fee type | Old | Change | New | Change |
| Provisional application filing fee | $ 300 | $ 25 | $ 325 | 8% |
| Basic filing fee | $ 320 | $ 30 | $ 350 | 9% |
| Surcharge for late fee or paper | $ 160 | $ 10 | $ 170 | 6% |
| Each independent claim over three | $ 480 | $ 120 | $ 600 | 25% |
| Each claim over 20 | $ 100 | $ 100 | $ 200 | 100% |
| Each multiple dependent claim | $ 860 | $ 65 | $ 925 | 8% |
| Utility search fee | $ 770 | $ 70 | $ 840 | 9% |
| Utility examination fee | $ 880 | $ 80 | $ 960 | 9% |
| Utility issue fee | $1,200 | $ 90 | $1,290 | 8% |
| Total | $5,070 | $ 590 | $5,660 | 12% |
The total change in this table is not an accurate weighted average as not all applications include one of each fee type.
Cost of continued examination
This is an area where the patent office wants to change your behaviour.
Often the first two office actions you get from the USPTO are just practice for the examiner or the applicant. Someone isn’t getting the other person. So you often must file a request for continued examination (RCE). In some cases, the costs are going way up. Specifically,
- $2,700 for RCEs filed 6 — 9 years after the earliest priority date; and
- $4,000 for RCES filed more than 9 years after the earliest priority date.
The government agency’s justification is that these applications, should they become patents, generate less maintenance fees which is half of the USPTO’s income. Really, this is an attempt to kill off long-pending applications.
However, the real shocker is that the fee for a common RCE is going up 43%. The first RCE is often just a cost in filing a patent application. The second or further request is ideally avoided. Now the cost is up to $2,860.
| Fee type | Old | Change | New | Change |
| RCE – 1st request | $1,360 | $ 140 | $1,500 | 10% |
| RCE – 2nd or higher request | $2,000 | $ 860 | $2,860 | 43% |
| Total | $3,360 | $1,000 | $4,360 | 30% |
Design patents are getting expensive.
Design applications are going up by 48%. Some of these fees are justified because the amount of searching that examiners must do is high. The issue fee is going up by a shocking 76% considering no clear reasoning of elevated costs to allow and publish these applications was presented.
| Fee type | Old | Change | New | Change |
| App | $ 220 | $ 80 | $ 300 | 36% |
| Search | $ 160 | $ 140 | $ 300 | 88% |
| Exam | $ 640 | $ 60 | $ 700 | 9% |
| Issue | $ 740 | $ 560 | $ 1,300 | 76% |
| Total | $ 1,760 | $ 840 | $ 2,600 | 48% |
Little change for the extension of time fees
In rare circumstances your provisional application is incomplete, and you miss the deadline. The fees for an extension of time in a provisional were the same as a nonprovisional one. “The USPTO is implementing a standalone extension of time (EOT) fee structure for provisional applications in which fees will be decreased from current amounts by an average of 81%.” The decreases here are significant but irrelevant. Most applicants never have to pay these fees.
For nonprovisional applications, the extension of time fees remain unchanged. As the costs to provide this service are unchanged.
More information
You will save money by filing applications and paying fees before 2025 January 19. For more information see the implementation notice: USPTO, 2024 “Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees During Fiscal Year 2025” Federal Register 89(224): 91898, or contact us.
