Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Patent and Trademark Office

37 CFR Parts 1, 41, and 42

[Docket No. PTO-C-2011-0008]

RIN 0651-AC54

Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees

AGENCY:

United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of Commerce.

ACTION:

Final rule.

SUMMARY:

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office or USPTO) sets or adjusts patent fees in this rulemaking as authorized by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (Act or AIA). The fees will provide the Office with a sufficient amount of aggregate revenue to recover its aggregate cost of patent operations, while helping the Office implement a sustainable funding model, reduce the current patent application backlog, decrease patent application pendency, improve patent quality, and upgrade the Office's patent business information technology (IT) capability and infrastructure. The fees also will further key policy considerations. The Office also reduces fees for micro entities under section 10(b) of the Act by 75 percent in this rulemaking and extends the existing fee discount of 50 percent for small entities to additional fees in this rulemaking.

DATES:

This rule is effective on March 19, 2013, except for amendments to § 1.18(a)(1), (b)(1), (c)(1), and (d)(1) (patent issue and publication fees); § 1.21(h)(1) (fee for recording a patent assignment electronically); § 1.482(a)(1)(i)(A), (a)(1)(ii)(A), and (a)(2)(i) (international application filing, processing and search fees); and § 1.445(a)(1)(i)(A), (a)(2)(i), (a)(3)(i), and (a)(4)(i) (international application transmittal and search fees), which will be effective on January 1, 2014.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Michelle Picard, Office of the Chief Financial Officer, by telephone at (571) 272-6354 or by email at

michelle.picard@uspto.gov

; or Dianne Buie, Office of Planning and Budget, by telephone at (571) 272-6301 or by email at

dianne.buie@uspto.gov

.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

This rule was proposed in a notice of proposed rulemaking published at 77 FR 55028 (Sept. 6, 2012) (hereinafter NPRM).

Table of Contents

I. Executive Summary

II. Legal Framework

III. Rulemaking Goals and Strategies

IV. Fee Setting Methodology

V. Individual Fee Rationale

VI. Discussion of Comments

VII. Discussion of Specific Rules

VIII. Rulemaking Considerations

I. Executive Summary

A. Purpose of This Action

Section 10 of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act authorizes the Director of the USPTO to set or adjust by rule any patent fee established, authorized, or charged under Title 35, United States Code (U.S.C.) for any services performed by, or materials furnished by, the Office. Section 10 prescribes that fees may be set or adjusted only to recover the aggregate estimated costs to the Office for processing, activities, services, and materials relating to patents, including administrative costs to the Office with respect to such patent operations. Section 10 authority includes flexibility to set individual fees in a way that furthers key policy considerations, while taking into account the cost of the respective services.

See

Section 10 of the Act, Public Law 112-29, 125 Stat. at 316-17. Section 10 also establishes certain procedural requirements for setting or adjusting fee regulations, such as public hearings and input from the Patent Public Advisory Committee and oversight by Congress.

The fee schedule in this final rule will recover the aggregate estimated costs of the Office while achieving strategic and operational goals, such as implementing a sustainable funding model, reducing the current patent application backlog, decreasing patent application pendency, improving patent quality, and upgrading the patent IT business capability and infrastructure.

The United States economy depends on high quality and timely patents to protect new ideas and investments for business and job growth. To reduce the backlog and decrease patent application pendency, the USPTO must examine significantly more patent applications than it receives each year for the next several years. Bringing the number of applications in the backlog down to a manageable level, while at the same time keeping pace with the new patent applications expected to be filed each year, requires the Office to collect more aggregate revenue than it estimates that it will collect at existing fee rates. The Office estimates that the additional aggregate revenue derived from this fee schedule will enable a decrease in total patent application pendency by 11.3 months during the five-year planning horizon (fiscal year (FY) 2013-FY 2017), thus permitting a patentee to obtain a patent sooner than he or she would have under the status quo fee schedule. The additional revenue from this fee schedule also will recover the cost to begin building a three-month patent operating reserve. The Office estimates that the patent operating reserve will accumulate almost two months of patent operating expenses by the end of the five-year planning horizon (FY 2013-FY 2017) and will reach the three-month target in FY 2018, thereby continuing to build a sustainable funding model that will aid the Office in maintaining shorter pendency and an optimal patent application inventory.

Additionally, the fee schedule in this final rule will advance key policy considerations while taking into account the cost of individual services. For example, the rule includes multipart and staged fees for requests for continued examination (RCEs), appeals, and contested cases, all of which aim to increase patent prosecution options for applicants. Also, this rule includes a new 75 percent fee reduction for micro entities and expands the availability of the 50 percent fee reduction for small entities as required under section 10, providing small entities a discount on more than 25 patent fees that do not currently qualify for a small entity discount.

B. Summary of Provisions Impacted by This Action

This final rule sets or adjusts 351 patent fees—93 apply to large entities (any reference herein to “large entity” includes all entities other than small or micro entities), 94 to small entities, 93 to micro entities, and 71 are not entity-specific. Of the 93 large entity fees, 71 are adjusted, 18 are set at existing fee amounts, and 4 were first proposed in the preceding NPRM. Of the 94 small entity fees, 85 are adjusted, 5 are set at existing fee amounts, and 4 were first proposed in the NPRM. There are 93 new micro entity fees first proposed in the NPRM that are set at a reduction of 75 percent from the large entity fee amounts. Of the 71 fees that are not entity-specific, 9 are adjusted in this rule, and 62 are set at existing fee amounts.

In all, once effective, the routine fees to obtain a patent (i.e., filing, search, examination, publication, and issue fees) will decrease by at least 23 percent under this final rule relative to the current fee schedule. Also, despite increases in some fees, applicants who meet the new micro entity definition will pay less than the amount paid for small entity fees under the current fee schedule for 87 percent of the fees eligible for a discount under section 10(b). Additional information describing

the adjustments is included in

Part V. Individual Fee Rationale

section of Supplementary Information for this final rulemaking.

C. Summary of Costs and Benefits of This Action

The Office prepared a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) to consider the costs and benefits of this final rule over a five-year period (FY 2013-FY 2017). In the RIA developed for the NPRM, the Office offered a discussion of monetized and qualitative costs that could be derived from the proposed patent fee schedule. The Office made several inferences using internal data and relevant academic literature. Upon further review of the proposed rulemaking and source materials, and consistent with OMB Circular A-4, Regulatory Analysis, as discussed further in the RIA, the USPTO no longer monetizes costs and benefits in the final rule or the RIA. Rather, this final rule for the purposes of regulatory review is considered to be a transfer payment from one group to another, and discussion of all costs and benefits is qualitative in nature. Thus, the RIA for this final rule outlines the transfer and assesses the qualitative benefits and costs that accrue to patent applicants, patent holders, and other patent stakeholders in the United States. The RIA includes a qualitative comparison of the final fee schedule to the current fee schedule (Baseline) and to three other alternatives considered. The RIA assesses the change in qualitative costs or benefits related to the changes in the final fee schedule using certain key indicators when comparing the Baseline. The RIA concludes that the patent fee schedule set forth in this final rule has the most significant net benefit among the alternatives considered.

See

Table 1. The complete RIA is available for review at

http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/fees.jsp#heading-1

.

Table 1—Final Patent Fee Schedule Costs and Benefits, Cumulative FY 2013—FY 2017

Transfers

Transfers

$13,993 million

Qualitative Costs and Benefits

Costs:

Cost of patent operations

Minimal

Lost patent value from a decrease in patent applications

Minimal

Benefit:

Increase in private patent value from a decrease in pendency

Significant

Fee Schedule Design Benefits

(Significant, Moderate, Not Significant)

Moderate

Decreased Uncertainty Effect

(Significant, Moderate, Not Significant)

Significant

Net Benefit

Significant

To assess the qualitative benefits of the final fee schedule, the Office considered how the value of a patent would increase under the final fee schedule, as well as benefits from improving the fee schedule design and benefits from decreased uncertainty. When patent application pendency decreases, a patentee holds the exclusive right to the invention sooner, which increases the private value of that patent. Because the outcomes of this final rule will decrease patent application pendency, the Office expects that the private patent value will increase considerably, relative to the Baseline. Likewise, the design of the final fee schedule offers benefits relating to the three policy factors considered for setting individual fees as described in

Part III

of this final rule, namely,

fostering innovation, facilitating effective administration of the patent system,

and

offering patent prosecution options to applicants.

By maintaining the current fee setting philosophy of keeping front-end fees below the cost of application processing and recovering revenue from back-end fees, the final fee schedule continues to

foster innovation

and ease access to the patent system. The final fee schedule also continues to offer incentives and disincentives to engage in certain activities that

facilitate effective administration of the patent system

and help reduce the amount of time it takes to have a patent application examined. For example, application size fees, extension of time fees, and excess claims fees remain in place to facilitate the prompt conclusion of prosecution of an application. The final fee schedule likewise includes multipart and staged fees for RCEs, appeals, and contested cases, all of which aim to

increase patent prosecution options for applicants.

The qualitative benefits of the fee schedule design include new options for applicants to reduce their front-end costs for some services (e.g., appeals) until they have more information to determine the best prosecution option for their innovation. Lastly, shortening pendency reduces uncertainty regarding the claimed invention and scope of patent rights for patentees, competitors, and new entrants. Reducing uncertainty has a significant benefit in terms of clarity of patent rights, freedom to innovate, and the efficient operation of markets for technology.

To assess the qualitative costs of the final fee schedule, the Office assessed the costs of its patent operations. The Office's cost of patent operations varies depending on the number of incoming patent applications and the amount of resources available. As discussed in

Part IV. Fee Setting Methodology

(

see

Step 1), the cost of operations included in this final rule also reduced slightly from that estimated in the NPRM.

See

Table 1.

For FY 2013—FY 2015, the Office continues to project an annual increase in the number of serialized patent application filings, though the increases to some fees in the new fee structure may result in a slightly slower growth rate than that estimated under the Baseline. Nevertheless, the Office estimated that new patent application filings would return to the same annual growth rate anticipated in the absence of fee increases beginning in FY 2016. Overall, the demand for patent application services is generally inelastic (

see USPTO Section 10 Fee Setting—Description of Elasticity Estimates,

” at

http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/fees.jsp#heading-1

), and even with these slight decreases, the total number of patent applications filed is projected to grow year-after-year. The Office considered the cost associated with this slight reduction in patent applications filed as a reduction to the benefit of the increased patent value when assessing the overall net benefit of the final fee schedule.

See

Table 1.

Additional details describing the benefits and costs of the final fee schedule are available in the RIA at

http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/fees.jsp#heading-1

.

II. Legal Framework

A. Leahy-Smith America Invents Act—Section 10

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act was enacted into law on September 16, 2011.

See

Public Law 112-29, 125 Stat. 284. Section 10(a) of the Act authorizes the Director of the Office to set or adjust by rule any patent fee established, authorized, or charged under Title 35, U.S.C. for any services performed by, or

materials furnished by, the Office. Fees under 35 U.S.C. may be set or adjusted only to recover the aggregate estimated cost to the Office for processing, activities, services, and materials related to patents, including administrative costs to the Office with respect to such patent operations.

See

125 Stat. at 316. Provided that the fees in the aggregate achieve overall aggregate cost recovery, the Director may set individual fees under section 10 at, below, or above their respective cost. The Office's current fee structure includes statutory fees (set by Congress) that provide lower, below cost fees on the front end of the patent process (e.g., filing, searching, and examination fees), which are in turn balanced out by higher, above cost fees on the back end (i.e., issue and maintenance fees). This balance enables the Office to provide lower costs to enter the patent system, making it easier for inventors to pursue patents for their innovations, and these lower front-end fees are off-set by higher back-end fees. Congress set this balance when it established the existing statutory fee structure, and the Office continues to follow this model with the fee structure in this final rule, because a key policy consideration is to

foster innovation

by facilitating access to the patent system. Section 10(e) of the Act requires the Director to publish the final fee rule in the

Federal Register

and the Official Gazette of the Patent and Trademark Office at least 45 days before the final fees become effective. Section 10(i) terminates the Director's authority to prospectively set or adjust any fee under section 10(a) upon the expiration of the seven-year period that began on September 16, 2011.

B. Small Entity Fee Reduction

Section 10(b) of the AIA requires the Office to reduce by 50 percent the fees for small entities that are set or adjusted under section 10(a) for filing, searching, examining, issuing, appealing, and maintaining patent applications and patents.

C. Micro Entity Fee Reduction

Section 10(g) of the AIA amends Chapter 11 of Title 35, U.S.C. to add section 123 concerning micro entities. Section 10(b) of the Act requires the Office to reduce by 75 percent the fees for micro entities that are set or adjusted under Section 10(a) for filing, searching, examining, issuing, appealing, and maintaining patent applications and patents. In a separate rulemaking, pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 123, the Office implemented the micro entity provisions of the AIA.

See

77 FR 75019 (Dec. 19, 2012).

D. Patent Public Advisory Committee Role

The Secretary of Commerce established the Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) under the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999. 35 U.S.C. 5. The PPAC advises the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO on the management, policies, goals, performance, budget, and user fees of patent operations.

When adopting patent fees under section 10 of the Act, the Director must provide the PPAC with the proposed fees at least 45 days prior to publishing the proposed fees in the

Federal Register

. The PPAC then has at least 30 days within which to deliberate, consider, and comment on the proposal, as well as to hold public hearing(s) on the proposed fees. The PPAC must make a written report available to the public of the comments, advice, and recommendations of the committee regarding the proposed fees before the Office issues any final fees. The Office will consider and analyze any comments, advice, or recommendations received from the PPAC before finally setting or adjusting fees.

Consistent with this framework, on February 7, 2012, the Director notified the PPAC of the Office's intent to set or adjust patent fees and submitted a preliminary patent fee proposal with supporting materials. The preliminary patent fee proposal and associated materials are available at

http://www.uspto.gov/about/advisory/ppac/

. The PPAC held two public hearings: one in Alexandria, Virginia, on February 15, 2012, and another in Sunnyvale, California, on February 23, 2012. Transcripts of these hearings and comments submitted to the PPAC in writing are available for review at

http://www.uspto.gov/about/advisory/ppac/

.

The PPAC submitted a written report on September 24, 2012, setting forth in detail the comments, advice, and recommendations of the committee regarding the proposed fees. The report is available for review at

http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/fees.jsp#heading-1

. The Office considered and analyzed the comments, advice, and recommendations received from the PPAC before publishing this final rule. The Office's response to the PPAC's report is available in the Discussion of Comments at

Part VI

of this rulemaking.

III. Rulemaking Goals and Strategies

Consistent with the Office's goals and obligations under the AIA, the overall strategy of this rulemaking is to ensure that the fee schedule generates sufficient revenue to recover aggregate costs. Another strategy is to set individual fees to further key policy considerations while taking into account the cost of the particular service. As to the strategy of balancing aggregate revenue and aggregate cost, this rule will provide sufficient revenue for two significant USPTO goals: (1) Implement a sustainable funding model for operations; and (2) optimize patent timeliness and quality. As to the strategy of setting individual fees to further key policy considerations, the policy factors contemplated are: (1)

Fostering innovation;

(2)

facilitating effective administration of the patent system;

and (3)

offering patent prosecution options to applicants

.

These fee schedule goals and strategies are consistent with strategic goals and objectives detailed in the

USPTO 2010-2015 Strategic Plan

(Strategic Plan) that is available at

http://www.uspto.gov/about/stratplan/USPTO_2010-2015_Strategic_Plan.pdf

, as amended by Appendix #1 of the FY 2013 President's Budget, available at

http://www.uspto.gov/about/stratplan/budget/fy13pbr.pdf

(collectively referred to herein as “Strategic Goals”). The Strategic Plan defines the USPTO's mission and long-term goals and presents the actions the Office will take to realize those goals. The significant actions the Office describes in the Strategic Plan that are specific to the goals of this rulemaking are implementing a sustainable funding model, reducing the patent application backlog, decreasing patent application pendency, improving patent quality, and upgrading the Office's patent IT business capability and infrastructure.

Likewise, the fee schedule goals and strategies also support the

Strategy for American Innovation

—an Administration initiative first released in September 2009, and updated in February 2011, that is available at

http://www.whitehouse.gov/innovation/strategy

. The

Strategy for American Innovation

recognizes innovation as the foundation of American economic growth and national competitiveness. Economic growth in advanced economies like the United States is driven by creating new and better ways of producing goods and services, a process that triggers new and productive investments, which is the cornerstone of economic growth. Achieving the

Strategy for American Innovation

depends, in part, on the USPTO's success in reducing the patent application backlog and in decreasing patent application pendency—both of which stall the delivery of innovative

goods and services to market and impede economic growth and the creation of high-paying jobs. This rule positions the USPTO to reduce the patent application backlog and decrease patent application pendency.

A. Ensure the Overall Fee Schedule Generates Sufficient Revenue To Recover Aggregate Cost

The first fee setting strategy is to ensure that the fee schedule generates sufficient aggregate revenue to recover the aggregate cost to maintain USPTO operations and accomplish USPTO strategic goals. Two overriding principles motivate the Office in this regard: (1) Operating with a more sustainable funding model than in the past to avoid disruptions caused by fluctuations in the economy; and (2) accomplishing strategic goals, including the imperatives of reducing the patent application backlog and decreasing patent application pendency. Each principle is discussed in greater detail below.

1. Implement a Sustainable Funding Model for Operations

As explained in the Strategic Plan, the Office's objective of implementing a sustainable funding model for operations will facilitate USPTO's long-term operational and financial planning and enable the Office to adapt to changes in the economy and in operational workload.

Since 1982, patent fees that generate most of the patent revenue (e.g., filing, search, examination, issue, and maintenance fees) have been set by statute, and the Office could adjust these fees only to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for All Urban Consumers, as determined by the Secretary of Labor. Because these fees were set by statute, the USPTO could not realign or adjust them to quickly and effectively respond to market demand or changes in processing costs other than for the CPI. Over the years, these constraints led to funding variations and shortfalls. Section 10 of the AIA changed this fee adjustment model and authorized the USPTO to set or adjust patent fees within the regulatory process so that the Office will be better able to respond to its rapidly growing workload.

The Budgets (

see

FY 2013 and FY 2014 President's Budget Requests at

http://www.uspto.gov/about/stratplan/budget/index.jsp

) delineate the annual plans and prospective aggregate costs to execute the initiatives in the Strategic Plan. One of these costs is the growth of a three-month patent operating reserve to allow effective management of the U.S. patent system and responsiveness to changes in the economy, unanticipated production workload, and revenue changes, while maintaining operations and effectuating long-term strategies. The Office evaluated the optimal size of the operating reserve by examining specific risk factors. There are two main factors that create a risk of volatility in patent operations—spending levels and revenue streams. After reviewing other organizations' operating reserves, the Office found that a fully fee-funded organization such as the USPTO should maintain a minimum of a three-month operating reserve. The fee schedule in this final rule will gradually build the three-month operating reserve. The USPTO will assess the patent operating reserve balance against its target balance annually and, at least every two years, will evaluate whether the target balance continues to be sufficient to provide the stability in funding needed by the Office. By implementing this fee schedule, the USPTO anticipates that the three-month patent operating reserve will be achieved in FY 2018.

The fees in this final rule will provide the USPTO with sufficient aggregate revenue to recover the aggregate cost to operate the Office while improving the patent system. During FY 2013, patent operations will cost $2.479 billion after accounting for an offset to spending from other income of $23 million and a withdrawal from the operating reserve of $28 million. The final fee schedule should generate $2.479 billion in aggregate revenue to offset these costs. Once the Office transitions to the fee levels set forth in this final rule, it estimates an additional $11.5 billion in aggregate revenue will be generated from FY 2014 through FY 2017 to recover the total aggregate cost over the same time period—$11.1 billion in operating costs and $0.4 billion in a three-month operating reserve. (

See

Table 3 in

Part IV,

Step 2 of this rule.)

Under the new fee structure, as in the past, the Office will continue to regularly review its operating budgets and long-range plans to ensure that the USPTO uses patent fees prudently.

2. Optimize Patent Quality and Timeliness

The Office developed the strategic goal of optimizing patent quality and timeliness in response to intellectual property (IP) community feedback, the

Strategy for American Innovation,

and in recognition that a sound, efficient, and effective IP system is essential for technological innovation and for patent holders to reap the benefits of patent protection.

In past years, a steady increase in incoming patent applications and insufficient patent examiner hiring due to multi-year funding shortfalls has led to a large patent application backlog and long patent application pendency. Decreasing pendency increases the private value of a patent because the faster a patent is granted, the more quickly the patent owner can commercialize the innovation. Shorter pendency also allows for earlier disclosure of the scope of the patent, which reduces uncertainty for the patentee, potential competitors, and additional innovators regarding patent rights and the validity of the patentee's claims.

To reduce the backlog and decrease patent application pendency, the USPTO must examine significantly more patent applications than it receives each year for the next several years. Bringing the applications in the backlog down to a manageable level, while at the same time keeping pace with the new patent applications expected to be filed each year, requires the Office to collect more aggregate revenue than it estimates that it will collect at existing fee rates. The Office needs this additional revenue to hire additional patent examiners, improve the patent business IT capability and infrastructure, and implement other programs to optimize the timeliness of patent examination. This final rule will result in an average first action patent application pendency of 10 months in FY 2016, an average total pendency of 20 months in FY 2017, and a reduced patent application backlog and inventory of approximately 335,000 patent applications by FY 2016. This would be a significant improvement over the 21.9 months and 32.4 months for average first action patent application pendency and average total pendency, respectively, at the end of FY 2012. Under this final rule, the patent application backlog is also expected to decrease significantly from the 608,300 applications in inventory as of the end of FY 2012.

In addition to timeliness of patent protection, the quality of application review is critical to ensure that the value of an issued patent is high. Quality issuance of patents provides certainty in the market and allows businesses and innovators to make informed and timely decisions on product and service development. Through this final rule, the Office will continue to improve patent quality through comprehensive training for new and experienced examiners, an expanded and enhanced ombudsmen program to help resolve questions about

applications, improved hiring processes, and guidelines for examiners to address clarity issues in patent applications. The Office also will continue to encourage interviews between applicants and examiners to help clarify allowable subject matter early in the examination process and to encourage interviews later in prosecution to resolve outstanding issues. Lastly, the Office will continue to reengineer the examination process, and to monitor and measure examination using a comprehensive set of metrics that analyze the quality of the entire process.

In addition to direct improvements to patent quality and timeliness, the USPTO's development and implementation of the patent end-to-end processing system using the revenue generated from this fee structure will improve the efficiency of the patent system. The IT architecture and systems in place currently are obsolete and difficult to maintain, leaving the USPTO highly vulnerable to disruptions in patent operations. Additionally, the current IT systems require patent employees and external stakeholders to perform labor-intensive business processes manually, decreasing the efficiency of the patent system. This final rule provides the Office with sufficient revenue to modernize its IT systems so that the majority of applications are submitted, handled, and prosecuted electronically. Improved automation will benefit both the Office and innovation community.

B. Set Individual Fees To Further Key Policy Considerations, While Taking Into Account the Costs of the Particular Service

The second fee setting strategy is to set individual fees to further key policy considerations, while taking into account the cost of the associated service or activity. This fee schedule recovers the aggregate cost to the Office of operations, while also considering the individual cost of each service provided. This includes consideration that some applicants may use particular services in a more costly manner than other applicants (e.g., patent applications cost more to process when more claims are filed). The final fee schedule considers three key policy factors: (1)

Fostering innovation;

(2)

facilitating effective administration of the patent system;

and (3)

offering patent prosecution options to applicants

. The Office focused on these policy factors because each promotes particular aspects of the U.S. patent system.

Fostering innovation

is an important policy factor to ensure that access to the U.S. patent system is without significant barriers to entry, and innovation is incentivized by granting inventors certain short-term exclusive rights to stimulate additional inventive activity.

Facilitating effective administration of the patent system

is important to influence efficient patent prosecution, resulting in compact prosecution and a decrease in the time it takes to obtain a patent. In addition, the Office recognizes that patent prosecution is not a one-size-fits-all process and therefore, where feasible, the Office endeavors to fulfill its third policy factor of

offering patent prosecution options to applicants

. Each of these policy factors is discussed in greater detail below.

1. Fostering Innovation

To encourage innovators to take advantage of patent protection, the Office sets basic “front-end” fees (e.g., filing, search, and examination) below the actual cost of carrying out these activities. Likewise, consistent with the requirements in the Act, the Office provides fee reductions for small and micro entity innovators to facilitate access to the patent system. Setting front-end and small and micro entity fees below cost requires, however, that other fees be set above cost. To that end, the Office sets basic “back-end” fees (e.g., issue and maintenance) in excess of costs to recoup revenue not collected by front-end and small and micro entity fees. Charging higher back-end fees also fosters innovation and benefits the overall patent system. After a patent is granted, a patent owner is better positioned, as opposed to at the time of filing a patent application, to more closely assess the expected value of an invention, which is a consideration in determining whether to pay maintenance fees to keep the patent protecting the invention in force. Expiration of a patent makes the subject matter of the patent available in the public domain for subsequent commercialization. Determining the appropriate balance between front-end and back-end fees is a critical component of aligning the Office's costs and revenues.

2. Facilitating Effective Administration of the Patent System

The fee structure in this final rule helps facilitate effective administration of the patent system by encouraging applicants or patent holders to engage in certain activities that facilitate an effective patent system. In particular, setting fees at the particular levels will: (1) Encourage the submission of applications or other actions that enable examiners to provide prompt, quality interim and final decisions; (2) encourage the prompt conclusion of prosecution of an application, which results in pendency reduction, faster dissemination of information, and certainty in patented inventions; and (3) help recover the additional costs imposed by some applicants' more intensive use of certain services that strain the patent system than other applicants.

3. Offering Patent Prosecution Options to Applicants

The final fee schedule provides applicants with flexible and cost-effective options for seeking patent protection. For example, the Office is setting multipart and staged fees for RCEs, appeals, and contested cases. The Office breaks the RCE fee into two parts. The fee for a first RCE is set more than 30 percent below cost to facilitate access to the service and in recognition that most applicants using RCEs only require one per application. The fee for a second and subsequent RCE is set only slightly below cost as an option for those who require multiple RCEs. Likewise, the staging of appeal fees allows applicants to pay less in situations when an application under appeal is either allowed or reopened rather than being forwarded to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). Finally, the establishment of multipart and staged fees for contested cases improves access to these proceedings while removing low quality patents from the patent system.

Summary of Rationale and Purpose of the Final Rule

The final patent fee schedule will produce aggregate revenues to recover the aggregate costs of the USPTO, including for its management of strategic goals, objectives, and initiatives in FY 2013 and beyond. Using the two Strategic Plan goals (implementing a sustainable funding model for operations and optimizing patent quality and timeliness) as a foundation, the final rule provides sufficient aggregate revenue to recover the aggregate cost of patent operations, including implementing a sustainable funding model, reducing the current patent application backlog, decreasing patent application pendency, improving patent quality, and upgrading the patent business IT capability and infrastructure. Additionally, in this final rule, the Office considered individual fees by evaluating its historical cost (where available) and considering the policy factors of

fostering innovation, facilitating effective administration of

the patent system,

and

offering patent prosecution options to applicants

.

IV. Fee Setting Methodology

As explained in the NPRM, there are three iterative and interrelated steps involved in developing the fees:

Step 1: Determine the prospective aggregate costs of patent operations over the five-year period, including the cost of implementing new initiatives to achieve strategic goals and objectives.

Step 2: Calculate the prospective revenue streams derived from the individual fee amounts (from Step 3) that will collectively recover the prospective aggregate cost over the five-year period.

Step 3: Set or adjust individual fee amounts to collectively (through executing Step 2) recover projected aggregate cost over the five-year period, while furthering key policy considerations.

A description of how the USPTO carries out these three steps is set forth in turn. Where key projections or inputs have changed since the NPRM, the Office explains the reasons underlying the revised estimates.

Step 1: Determine Prospective Aggregate Costs

Calculating aggregate costs is accomplished primarily through the routine USPTO budget planning and formulation process. The Budget is a five-year plan (that the Office prepares and updates annually) for carrying out base programs and implementing the strategic goals and objectives.

The first activity performed to determine prospective aggregate cost is to project the level of demand for patent products and services. Demand for products and services depends on many factors, including domestic and global economic activity. The USPTO also takes into account overseas patenting activities, policies and legislation, and known process efficiencies. Because examination costs are approximately 70 percent of the total patent operating cost, a primary production workload driver is the number of patent application filings (i.e., incoming work to the Office). The Office looks at indicators such as the expected growth in Real Gross Domestic Product (RGDP), the leading indicator to incoming patent applications, to estimate prospective workload. RGDP is reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (

www.bea.gov

), and is forecasted each February by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) (

www.omb.gov

) in the Economic and Budget Analyses section of the Analytical Perspectives, and each January by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) (

www.cbo.gov

) in the Budget and Economic Outlook. A description of the Office's methodology for using RGDP can be found in the section of the annual budget entitled, “USPTO Fee Collection Estimates/Ranges.”

See

annual budget

available at http://www.uspto.gov/about/stratplan/budget/index.jsp

. The expected change in the required production workload must then be compared to the current examination production capacity to determine any required staffing and operating cost (e.g., salaries, workload processing contracts, and printing) adjustments. The Office uses a patent application pendency model that estimates patent production output based on actual historical data and input assumptions, such as incoming patent applications, examiner attrition rates, and overtime hours. An overview of the model and a simulation tool is available at

http://www.uspto.gov/patents/stats/patent_pend_model.jsp

. Further information, including a more detailed description of inputs, outputs, and key data relationships, is available from the Office upon request.

The second activity is to calculate the aggregate costs to execute the requirements. In developing its annual budgets, the Office first looks at the cost of status quo operations (the base requirements). The base requirements (e.g., salaries for employees on-board) are adjusted for anticipated pay raises and inflationary increases for the periods FY 2013-FY 2017 (examples of the detailed calculations and assumptions for this adjustment to base are available in the annual Budgets). The Office then estimates the prospective cost for expected changes in production workload and new initiatives over the same period of time (refer to “Program Changes by Sub-Activity” sections of the Budget). The Office reduces cost estimates for completed initiatives and known cost savings expected over the same five-year horizon (

see

page 9 of the FY 2013 President's Budget). Finally, the Office estimates its three-month target operating reserve level based on this aggregate cost calculation for the year to determine if operating reserve adjustments are necessary.

The estimate for the FY 2013 aggregate costs contained in this final rule ($2.479 billion) is $125 million less than the estimate contained in the NPRM ($2.604 billion). The Office lowered its aggregate cost estimate in response to public comments expressing a desire for the Office to achieve its goals over a longer timeframe and to incorporate additional efficiencies into operations. In some instances, the Office was also able to use more recent data. The most significant factors affecting the reduction in aggregate costs include: (1) Decreasing the amount deposited into the operating reserve as well as extending the timeframe for reaching the target amount of the operating reserve, and (2) lengthening the timeframe for achieving pendency goals and optimal inventory levels, and accounting for other changes related to operational costs and efficiencies. Each is discussed in turn.

First, the Office decided to slow the growth of the operating reserve, as well as reduce the amount of fees deposited into the operating reserve during FY 2013, in response to public and PPAC comments.

See

response to PPAC Comment 6 and Public Comments 18 and 19. The Office is slowing the growth of the operating reserve due to a reduction in aggregate revenue, as explained in more detail in Step 2, below. In the NPRM, the Office estimated reaching a target operating reserve level of three months in FY 2017. In this final rule, the adjustments to aggregate revenue and fee amounts have slowed the pace for reaching the three month operating reserve target to beyond the five-year planning period (approximately FY 2018). (

See

PPAC Comments 6, 7, 11, 14, 16, and 23; and Public Comments 2, 18, 41, 42, 43, and 45 for additional information). When estimating aggregate costs for the NPRM, the Office planned to deposit $73 million in the operating reserve in FY 2013. In the updated estimate of aggregate costs calculated for this final rule, the Office plans to use $28 million of operating reserve funds in FY 2013. The net change of activity results in a decrease of aggregate costs associated with the operating reserve of $101 million.

The Office is using funds from the operating reserve in FY 2013 due to two main components of aggregate cost—an increase in the cost of existing base requirements and the timing of implementing the fees included in the final rule. As discussed in more detail below, the Office experienced historically low examiner attrition rates (the rate at which examiners left the Office). This lower than planned attrition rate resulted in additional higher paid examiners on board during FY 2013, increasing the aggregate cost of base requirements of patent examination (existing examiners on board). Additionally, the Office will publish this final rule one month later than originally anticipated in the NPRM (April instead of March 2013). This later publication date reduces the amount of revenue originally estimated to be

collected during FY 2013. Further, the Office anticipates a “bubble” of fee payments paid at the current fee rates, prior to the effective date of the fees in this final rule. This “bubble” is typical in years with fee changes. Therefore, these situations require the Office to use the operating reserve in FY 2013, whereas in FY 2014 through FY 2017, the Office estimates it will deposit funds in the operating reserve.

Second, many public comments and the PPAC report strongly urged the Office to achieve the 10 month first action patent application pendency and the 20 month total patent application pendency goals more gradually than proposed, and to achieve a “soft landing” to reach the optimal patent application inventory and workforce levels at a slower rate than proposed.

See

PPAC Comment 7 and Public Comment 2. During FY 2012, the Office examined more patent applications than it initially anticipated, in part because of historically low attrition rates. In the NPRM, the Office anticipated an attrition of 5.8 percent in FY 2013, but in the final rule, the Office now anticipates an attrition rate of 4.0 percent in FY 2013 (the same attrition rate the Office experienced in FY 2012).

In response to comments and to capitalize on the historically low attrition rates, the Office is recalibrating its examination capacity during the five-year planning period of this final rule by reducing the number of examiners that are hired, increasing the amount of overtime allotted for production, and hiring more experienced examiners. Instead of planning to hire 1,500 patent examiners in FY 2013 (as the NPRM estimated), the Office now plans to hire 1,000 patent examiners in FY 2013. The Office also reevaluated its hiring plans in FY 2013 to include hiring more patent examiners with greater IP experience and knowledge, thus making this smaller number of hires more productive sooner than originally expected. This recalibration results in a more costly examiner production capacity (because the more experienced hires are paid a higher salary) in the beginning (FY 2013 and FY 2014) of the five-year planning period when comparing the net operating requirements (

see

Table 3) per production unit (

see

Table 2) in the final rule to that in the NPRM. However, as the Office begins reaping the benefits of the overtime and hiring recalibration, the examiner production capacity begins to cost less in FY 2015, so that the total net operating cost per production unit over the five-year planning period is less in the final rule than in the NPRM. For example, in FY 2013, the net operating requirements per production unit are approximately $4,200 in this final rule ($2.507 billion divided by 596,200 production units) compared to approximately $4,100 in the NPRM. In FY 2015, the net operating requirements per production unit are approximately $4,020 in this final rule ($2.779 billion divided by 691,300 production units) compared to approximately $4,046 in the NPRM. This initial increase in aggregate cost is necessary to establish the examination capacity needed to achieve the “soft landing” referred to in the comments from the PPAC and the public.

The “soft landing” is evident when looking at the more gradual increase in production units over four years (596,200 in FY 2013 increasing to 698,500 in FY 2016) in this final rule (

see

Table 2) compared to the rapid increase in the NPRM over three years (620,600 in FY 2013 increasing to 694,200 in FY 2015). Also, maintaining fewer examiners on board throughout and at the end of the five-year planning horizon (7,800 in FY 2017 in the final rule compared to 8,200 in FY 2017 in the NPRM) permits the Office to use production overtime as a lever to arrive at the future “soft landing” when evaluating actual inputs impacting the production modeling (application filing levels, examiner attrition rates, and production levels).

While the examination costs marginally increase in the early years due to the higher cost of base examination capacity (because the Office has greater expenses associated with having more examiners than initially projected from lower attrition rates and more experienced examiners), the Office has more than offset this increase by reducing patent operational costs in other areas such as deferring slightly some IT investment plans and leveraging operational efficiencies, consistent with public comments and a routine annual review and update of the patent operating and budget plans.

See

PPAC Comment 7 and Public Comment 2. In addition, in the time between the publication of the NPRM and the formulation of this final rule, additional information concerning key inputs to the patent application pendency model became available, so the Office revised certain projections as discussed below.

For example, after reviewing FY 2012 filing data and RGDP information available after the NPRM published (

see

Step 2: Calculate Prospective Aggregate Revenue), the Office lowered its estimates for the level of demand of patent products and services (application filing levels). In the NPRM, the Office projected a growth rate of 6.0 percent in FY 2013-FY 2014; 5.5 percent in FY 2015-FY 2016; and 5.0 percent in FY 2017. Based on actual filing data from FY 2012, the Office now believes that a projected growth rate of 5.0 percent for each of FY 2013-FY 2017 is appropriate in this final rule. This means that examiner production capacity and aggregate costs are reduced because somewhat fewer patent applications are projected to be filed, and the work associated with those applications is less, as compared to the NRPM projections.

Many of the key inputs affecting lower aggregate costs and revenue are summarized in Table 2.

Table 2—Patent Production Workload Projections—FY 2013-FY 2017

Utility, Plant, and Reissue (UPR)

FY 2013

FY 2014

FY 2015

FY 2016

FY 2017

Applications *

558,900

586,800

616,200

647,000

679,300

Growth Rate **

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

Production Units

596,200

655,200

691,300

698,500

641,300

End of Year Backlog

566,800

486,500

398,900

334,300

358,500

Examination Capacity **

8,500

8,400

8,200

8,000

7,800

Performance Measures (UPR):

Avg. First Action Pendency (Months)

18.0

15.8

12.9

10.5

10.0

Avg. Total Pendency (Months)

30.1

26.1

23.7

21.0

18.8

* In this table, the patent application filing data includes requests for continued examination (RCEs).

** In this table, demand for patent examination services, which is used to calculate aggregate cost, is not adjusted for price elasticity.

Overall, the Office estimates that during FY 2013, patent operations will cost $2.530 billion, including $1.761 billion for patent examination activities; $340 million for IT systems, support, and infrastructure contributing to patent operations; $58 million for activities related to patent appeals and the new AIA

inter partes

dispute actions; $48 million for activities related to IP protection, policy, and enforcement; and $323 million for general support costs necessary for patent operations (e.g., rent, utilities, legal, financial, human resources, and other administrative services). In addition, the Office estimates collecting $23 million in other income associated with reimbursable agreements (offsets to spending) and using $28 million from the operating reserve during FY 2013 to sustain operations. Detailed descriptions of operating requirements are located in the USPTO annual budgets (

see

http://www.uspto.gov/about/stratplan/budget/index.jsp

). Table 2 above provides key underlying production workload projections and assumptions used to calculate aggregate cost. Table 3 presents the total budgetary requirements (prospective aggregate cost) for FY 2013 through FY 2017.

Table 3—Estimated Annual Aggregate Costs and Final Fee Schedule Aggregate Revenues

(In millions)

FY 2013

FY 2014

FY 2015

FY 2016

FY 2017

Aggregate Cost Estimate:

Planned Operating Requirements

$2,530

$2,739

$2,802

$2,852

$2,815

Less Other Income *

(23)

(23)

(23)

(23)

(23)

Net Operating Requirements

2,507

2,716

2,779

2,829

2,792

Planned Deposit in Operating Reserve

(28)

90

92

98

117

Total Aggregate Cost Estimate

2,479

2,806

2,871

2,927

2,909

Aggregate Revenue Estimate **

2,479

2,806

2,871

2,927

2,909

Cumulative Operating Reserve Balance

Target Operating Reserve

633

685

701

713

704

Operating Reserve Ending FY 2012 Balance $112

84

174

266

364

481

Over/(Under) Target Balance***

(549)

(511)

(435)

(349)

(223)

* The Office collects other income associated with reimbursable agreements (offsets to spending) and recoveries of funds obligated in prior years in the amount of approximately $23 million each year.

** The proposed fee schedule will generate less revenue compared to the FY 2013 President's Budget in an effort to slow the growth of the operating reserve over the next five years.

*** The Office estimates that it will meet the three-month operating reserve target in FY 2018.

Step 2: Calculate Prospective Aggregate Revenue

As described in Step 1, the USPTO's annual requirements-based budgets include the aggregate prospective cost of planned production, new initiatives, and an operating reserve planned for the Office to realize its strategic goals and objectives for the next five years. The aggregate prospective cost becomes the target aggregate revenue level that the new fee schedule must generate in a given year and over the five-year planning horizon. The estimate for the FY 2013 aggregate revenue contained in this final rule ($2.479 billion) is $125 million less than the estimate contained in the NPRM ($2.604 billion). As discussed in more detail in Step 1, the Office has lowered its aggregate cost estimate in response to public comments expressing a desire for the Office to achieve its goals over a longer timeframe and to incorporate additional efficiencies into operations. This reduction in aggregate costs requires a corresponding reduction in aggregate revenue. The most significant factors affecting the reduction in aggregate revenues include: (1) Decreasing fee amounts (

see

PPAC Comments 6, 7, 11, 14, 16, and 23; and Public Comments 2, 18, 41, 42, 43, and 45 for additional information); (2) publishing this final rule one month later than originally anticipated in the NPRM (April instead of March 2013) and thereby reducing the amount of revenue originally estimated to be collected during FY 2013; and (3) lengthening the timeframe for achieving pendency goals and optimal inventory levels (

see

Step 1, above for additional information). Following is a discussion of the methodology used to calculate aggregate revenue.

As explained in the NPRM, to calculate the aggregate revenue estimates, the Office first analyzes relevant factors and indicators to determine prospective fee workload volumes (e.g., number of applications and requests for services and products) for the five-year planning horizon. Economic activity is an important consideration when developing workload and revenue forecasts for the USPTO's products and services because economic conditions affect patenting activity, as most recently exhibited in the recession of 2009 when incoming workloads and renewal rates declined.

Major economic indicators include the overall condition of the U.S. and global economies, spending on research and development activities, and investments that lead to the commercialization of new products and services. The most relevant economic indicator that the Office uses is the RGDP, which is the broadest measure of economic activity. RGDP growth is factored into estimates of patent application levels. RGDP is anticipated to grow approximately three percent for FY 2013 based on OMB and CBO estimates provided in February and January of 2012, respectively. CBO prepared updated economic guidance in August 2012, temporarily altering its projection methodology to reflect heightened uncertainty over fiscal policy conditions and concerns. The August 2012 CBO estimates envision various economic scenarios instead of a single point estimate as CBO typically prepared. Nonetheless, the Office made calculations based on CBO's August 2012 estimates and they had a negligible impact on forecasts of the Office's workloads given the +/− 5 percent outer bounds discussed below.

Economic indicators also provide insight into market conditions and the management of IP portfolios, which influence application processing requests and post-issuance decisions to maintain patent protection. When developing fee workload forecasts, the Office considers other influential factors including overseas activity, policies and legislation, process efficiencies, and anticipated applicant behavior.

The Office's methodology to estimate aggregate revenue was updated to consider two new elements related setting and adjusting fees using the new section 10 fee setting authority. The first includes adjustments to fee workload estimates as a result of changes in demand for services. In the past, fees that comprise a majority of the Office's aggregate revenue (e.g., filing, search, examination, issue, and maintenance) were adjusted based on minimal CPI increases. In this rule, the Office is both increasing and decreasing fees by amounts larger than it experienced with CPI increases in the past. Therefore, the Office considered impacts of applicant and patentee behavior in response to the fee changes. The second incorporates the new discount for micro entity applicants and patentees. The introduction of the new micro entity fees required the Office to estimate how many small entity applicants and patentees would pay fees at micro entity rates. Each of these elements is discussed in turn below.

Elasticity and Application Filing Levels

The economic indicators discussed previously correlate with patent application filings, which, with adjustments for elasticity, are a key driver of patent fees. As discussed previously, in the NPRM, the Office projected an application filing growth rate of 6.0 percent in FY 2013—FY 2014, 5.5 percent in FY 2015—FY 2016, and 5.0 percent in FY 2017. After reviewing actual FY 2012 filing data and other economic indicators discussed herein, the Office lowered its estimates for the level of demand of patent products and services (application filing levels). The Office now believes that a projected growth rate of 5.0 percent for each of FY 2013—FY 2017 is appropriate in this final rule.

The Office also considered how applicant behavior in response to fee (price) changes included in this final rule would impact the application filing demand referenced above. Anticipated applicant behavior in response to fee changes is measured using an economic principle known as elasticity which for the purpose of this action means how sensitive applicants and patentees are to fee amounts or price changes. If elasticity is low enough (i.e., demand is

inelastic

), when fees increase, patent activities will decrease only slightly in response thereto, and overall revenues will still increase. Conversely, if elasticity is high enough (i.e., demand is

elastic

), when fees increase, patenting activities will decrease significantly enough in response thereto such that overall revenues will decrease. When developing fee forecasts, the Office accounts for how applicant behavior will change at different fee amounts projected for the various patent services. Additional detail about the Office's elasticity estimates is available in “

USPTO Section 10 Fee Setting—Description of Elasticity Estimates,”

at

http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/fees.jsp#heading-1

. Some of the information on which the Office based its elasticity estimates are copyrighted materials and are available for inspection at the USPTO.

Using the information contained in the “Description of Elasticity Estimates” document, the Office estimated that 1.3 percent fewer new (serialized) applications than the number estimated to be filed in the absence of a fee increase would be filed during FY 2013 as patent filers adjusted to the new fees, specifically the increase in the total filing, search, and examination fees for most applicants. The Office further estimated that 2.7 percent fewer new patent applications would be filed during FY 2014, and 4.0 percent fewer new patent applications would be filed during FY 2015. However, the Office estimated that new (serialized) patent application filings would return to the same annual growth rate anticipated in the absence of a fee increase beginning in FY 2016. Overall, the demand for patent application services is generally inelastic, and even with these slight decreases, the total aggregate revenue received from patent applications filed is projected to grow year-after-year.

Micro Entity Applicants

The introduction of a new class of applicants, called micro entities, requires a change to aggregate revenue estimations, and the Office refined its workload and fee collection estimates to include this new applicant class.

See

35 U.S.C. 123;

see also

Changes to Implement Micro Entity Status for Paying Patent Fees, 77 FR 75019 (Dec. 19, 2012). 35 U.S.C. 123, which sets forth the requirements that must be met in order for an applicant to claim the micro entity discount, provides two bases under which an applicant may establish micro entity status.

First, section 123(a) provides that the term “micro entity” means an applicant who makes a certification that the applicant: (1) Qualifies as a small entity as defined in 37 CFR 1.27; (2) has not been named as an inventor on more than four previously filed patent applications, other than applications filed in another country, provisional applications under 35 U.S.C. 111(b), or international applications for which the basic national fee under 35 U.S.C. 41(a) was not paid (except for applications resulting from prior employment as defined in section 123(b)); (3) did not, in the calendar year preceding the calendar year in which the applicable fee is being paid, have a gross income exceeding three times the median household income for that preceding calendar year; and (4) has not assigned, granted, or conveyed, and is not under an obligation by contract or law to assign, grant, or convey, a license or other ownership interest in the application concerned to an entity that had a gross income exceeding the income limit described in (3).

Second, 35 U.S.C. 123(d) provides that a micro entity also shall include an applicant who certifies that: (1) The applicant's employer, from which the applicant obtains the majority of the applicant's income, is an institution of higher education as defined in section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)); or (2) the applicant has assigned, granted, conveyed, or is under an obligation by contract or law, to assign, grant, or convey, a license or other ownership interest in the particular applications to such an institution of higher education.

The Office revised the rules of practice in patent cases to implement these micro entity provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act in a separate rulemaking.

See

77 FR 75019 (Dec. 19, 2012).

The Office estimates that when micro entity discounts on patent fees are available, 31 percent of small entity applications will be micro entity applications, under the criteria set forth in section 123(a) and (d). In making this estimate, the Office considered several factors, including historical data on patents granted. The Office began with patent grant data, because the best available biographic data on applicant type (e.g., independent inventor and domestic universities) comes from patent grant data in the Office's database. A series of computations led to the estimate that 31 percent of small entity applicants will be micro entities. The first set of computations estimated the number of persons who would qualify for micro entity status under Section 123(a). The Office began by estimating the number of individuals who were granted patents in FY 2011. There were 221,350 utility patents granted in FY 2011 as reported in the

FY 2011 USPTO Performance and Accountability Report

(

PAR

). The PAR is available for review at

http://www.uspto.gov/about/stratplan/ar/2011/index.jsp

. The Office's Patent Technology Monitoring Team (PTMT) provides data showing the split between

domestic and foreign patent grants. (It should be noted that PTMT's data is based on the calendar year not the fiscal year.) PTMT's data is available at

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/all_tech.htm#PartA1_1b

. From this data, the Office found that 5.0 percent of utility patents granted in FY 2011 were granted to individuals in the United States and 1.9 percent were granted to individuals from other countries. These figures refer to patents where the individuals were not listed in the USPTO database as associated with a company. These individuals would likely meet the criteria under section 123(a)(1) (small entity status). Using this information, the Office estimates that individuals in the United States received 11,068 utility patents (221,350 times 5.0 percent) in FY 2011, and that individuals from other countries received 4,206 utility patents (221,350 times 1.9 percent). In total, the Office estimates that 15,274 (11,068 plus 4,206) patents were granted to individuals in FY 2011.

Concerning the micro entity threshold in 35 U.S.C. 123(a)(2), the Office's Patent Application Locating and Monitoring (PALM) database reports that 62 percent of both foreign and domestic small entity applicants filed fewer than 5 applications in FY 2009. As stated above, an estimated 15,274 patent grants were to individuals both domestic (11,068) and foreign (4,206). Using this information, the Office estimates that 6,862 (11,068 times 62 percent) patents will be granted to domestic applicants who meet the thresholds for micro entity status set forth in sections 123(a)(1) and 123(a)(2), while 2,608 (4,206 times 62 percent) patents will be granted to foreign applicants who meet the same thresholds.

Concerning the income threshold in 35 U.S.C. 123(a)(3), the median household income for calendar year (CY) 2011 (the year most recently reported by the Bureau of the Census) was $50,054.

See

Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2011, at 5 and 33 (Table A-1) (Sept. 2012)

available at

http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p60-243.pdf

. (The Office will indicate conspicuously on its Web site the median household income reported by the Bureau of the Census and the income level that is three times the median household income for the calendar year most recently reported.) Thus, the income level specified in 35 U.S.C. 1.29(a)(3) and (a)(4) (three times the median household income) is $150,162.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) records show that in 2009 about 97 percent of individuals (as proxied by the total number of IRS form filings) reported adjusted gross income of less than $200,000, and about 87 percent of individuals reported adjusted gross income of less than $100,000.

See

Table 1.1 at:

http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/indtaxstats/article/0,,id=96981,00.html

. Using this information, the Office estimates that 6,656 (6,862 times 97 percent) of patents granted to individuals from the U.S. will be for individuals under the gross income threshold of the micro entity definition ($150,162 for CY 2011). The Office uses 97 percent as the best available estimate of the maximum number of individuals who satisfy the income limit. Median household income and gross income levels are not readily available for the country of origin for all foreign individuals. Therefore, the Office conservatively estimates that all foreign individuals will satisfy the income requirements for micro entity fee reductions, and that income alone should not limit their eligibility. Using the best available data, as presented above, the Office estimates that the total number of individuals who meet the thresholds set forth in 35 U.S.C. 123(a)(1), (a)(2), and (a)(3) is 9,264 (6,656 from the United States and 2,608 foreign).

The 9,264 figure represents a reasonable approximation of the number of patents granted annually to persons who would qualify as micro entities under section 123(a). There is no data available to indicate how many persons would be excluded under section 123(a)(4) based upon an assignment, grant, or conveyance or an obligation to grant, assign, or convey to an entity with income exceeding the limit in section 123(a)(3). However, the Office's approach with the other components of section 123(a) is sufficiently conservative to mitigate the risks of not capturing this population. Likewise, while a small company could qualify as a micro entity under section 123(a), the above calculation of individuals represents a reasonable overall approximation because the estimate of affected individuals is sufficiently conservative.

Turning to 35 U.S.C. 123(d), the most recent data available on university patent grants is from CY 2008. Reviewing the data from CY 2001-CY 2008, the Office estimates that domestic universities account for approximately 1.9 percent of all patent grants. The Office is using this figure as a reasonable approximation for the number of micro entity applicants expected under section 123(d), which covers applicants who are employed by universities or who have assigned their invention to a university. Applying this information to FY 2011, the Office estimates that universities received 4,206 (221,350 times 1.9 percent) of the patents granted in FY 2011. The data on university patent grants is available at:

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/univ/asgn/table_1_2008.htm

.

To combine 123(a) and 123(d), the Office adds the estimated number of patents granted that could meet the micro entity definition for individuals (9,264) and for university grants (4,206) to obtain a total of 13,470 patent grants. The Office divides 13,470 micro entity patents by the 43,827 small entity patents in FY 2011 (per the Office's PALM database) to calculate that approximately 31 percent of small entity patents will be micro entity patents. The Office expects a uniform distribution of micro entities across all application types. No data exists to suggest otherwise. Likewise, the Office applies the 31 percent estimate to both filings and grants because the Office expects a uniform distribution of micro entities among both applicants and patentees, and no data exists to suggest otherwise. Thus, the Office estimates that 31 percent of all small entity applicants will qualify as micro entity applicants.

In recent years, small entity applicants made up approximately 25 percent of utility filings and 20 percent of utility patent grants (per the PALM database). Given that utility filings are the largest category of application types, for forecasting purposes, the Office uses utility filing data as representative of the universe of patent application filings. Applying the 31 percent estimate for the number of micro entities, the Office estimates that micro entities will account for 7.8 percent (25 percent times 31 percent) of all filings, and 6.2 percent (20 percent times 31 percent) of all grants. The Office used these estimates (7.8 percent and 6.2 percent) to calculate the portion of fee workloads (e.g., number of application filings, patent issues, and maintenance fees paid) that should be multiplied by the new micro entity fee amounts to include in the estimate for aggregate revenue.

Aggregate Revenue Estimate Ranges

When calculating aggregate revenue, the USPTO prepares a high-to-low range of fee collection estimates that includes a +/− 5 percent outer bounds to account for: the inherent uncertainty, sensitivity, and volatility of predicting fluctuations in the economy and market environment; interpreting policy and

process efficiencies; and developing fee workload and fee collection estimates from assumptions. The Office used 5 percent because historically the Office's actual revenue collections have typically been within 5 percent of the projected revenue. Additional detail about the Office's aggregate revenue, including projected workloads by fee, is available in “

USPTO Section 10 Fee Setting—Aggregate Revenue Estimates Alternative 1: Proposed Alternative—Set and Adjust Section 10 Fees”

available at

http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/fees.jsp

.

Summary

Patent fees are collected for patent-related services and products at different points in time within the patent application examination process and over the life of the pending patent application and granted patent. Approximately half of all patent fee collections are from issue and maintenance fees, which subsidize filing, search, and examination activities. Changes in application filing levels immediately impact current year fee collections, because fewer patent application filings means the Office collects fewer fees to devote to production-related costs, such as additional examining staff and overtime. The resulting reduction in production activities creates an out-year revenue impact because less production output in one year results in fewer issue and maintenance fee payments in future years.

The USPTO's five-year estimated aggregate patent fee revenue (

see

“Aggregate Revenue Estimate” in Table 3) is based on the number of patent applications it expects to receive for a given fiscal year, work it expects to process in a given fiscal year (an indicator for workload of patent issue fees), expected examination and process requests for the fiscal year, and the expected number of post-issuance decisions to maintain patent protection over that same fiscal year. Within the iterative process for estimating aggregate revenue, the Office adjusts individual fees up or down based on cost and policy decisions (

see

Step 3: Set Specific Fee Amounts), estimates the effective dates of new fee rates, and then multiplies the resulting fees by appropriate workload volumes to calculate a revenue estimate for each fee.

To calculate the aggregate revenue, the Office assumes that all new fee rates will be effective on April 1, 2013, except for the following fee changes which will be effective on January 1, 2014: § 1.18(a)(1), (b)(1), (c)(1), and (d)(1) (patent issue and publication fees); § 1.21(h)(1) (fee for recording a patent assignment electronically); § 1.482(a)(1)(i)(A), (a)(1)(ii)(A), and (a)(2)(i) (international application filing, processing and search fees); and fees included in § 1.445(a)(1)(i)(A), (a)(2)(i), (a)(3)(i), and (a)(4)(i) (international application transmittal and search fees). Using these figures, the USPTO sums the individual fee revenue estimates, and the result is a total aggregate revenue estimate for a given year (

see

Table 3).

Step 3: Set Specific Fee Amounts

Once the Office finalizes the annual requirements and aggregate prospective costs for a given year during the budget formulation process, the Office sets specific fee amounts that, together, will derive the aggregate revenue required to recover the estimated aggregate prospective costs during that timeframe. Calculating individual fees is an iterative process that encompasses many variables. The historical cost estimates associated with individual fees is one variable that the USPTO considers to inform fee setting. The Office's Activity-Based Information (ABI) provides historical cost for an organization's activities and outputs by individual fee using the activity-based costing (ABC) methodology. ABC is commonly used for fee setting throughout the Federal Government. Additional information about the methodology, including the cost components related to respective fees, is available at

http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/fees.jsp#heading-1

in the document titled “

USPTO Section 10 Fee Setting—Activity-Based Information and Costing Methodology.”

The USPTO provides data for FY 2009—FY 2011 because the Office finds that reviewing the trend of ABI historical cost information is the most useful way to inform fee setting. The underlying ABI data are available for public inspection at the USPTO.

When the Office implements a new process or service, historical ABI data is typically not available. However, the Office will use the historical cost of a similar process or procedure as a starting point to calculate the cost of a new activity or service. For example, as described in the final rulemaking for supplemental examination, the Office used the ABI historical cost for

ex parte

reexamination procedures as a starting point for calculating the prospective cost to implement the new supplemental examination procedures.

See

Changes to Implement the Supplemental Examination Provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act and To Revise Reexamination Fees, 77 FR 48828 (Aug. 14, 2012).

In other cases, ABI historical cost information related to similar processes is not available, and the Office estimates cost by calculating the resources necessary to execute the new process. To do so, the Office estimates the amount of time (in hours) and necessary skill level to complete an activity. The USPTO then multiplies the estimated amount of time by the hourly wage(s) of the persons required at each skill level and adds the administrative and indirect cost rates (derived from ABI historical cost data) to this base cost estimate to calculate the full cost of the activity. One-time costs, such as IT, training, or facilities costs, are added to the full cost estimate to obtain the total cost of providing the new process or service. Lastly, the USPTO applies a rate of inflation to estimate the prospective unit cost. For example, the Office used this methodology to calculate the costs associated with the new

inter partes

and post-grant review processes.

See

Changes to Implement

Inter Partes

Review Proceedings, Post-Grant Review Proceedings, and Transitional Program for Covered Business Method Patents, 77 FR 48680 (Aug. 14, 2012).

Besides using cost data as a point of reference for setting individual fee amounts, the USPTO also uses various policy factors discussed in

Part III. Rulemaking Goals and Strategies

to inform fee setting. Fees are set to allow the Office to recover its aggregate costs, while furthering key policy considerations. The following section describes the rationale for setting fee rates at specific amounts.

V. Individual Fee Rationale

The Office projects the aggregate revenue generated from the patent fees will recover the prospective aggregate cost of its patent operations. However, each individual fee is not necessarily set equal to the estimated cost of performing the activities related to the fee. Instead, as described in

Part III. Rulemaking Goals and Strategies,

some of the fees are set to balance several key policy factors:

fostering innovation, facilitating effective administration of the patent system,

and

offering patent prosecution options to applicants.

As also described in

Part III,

executing these policy factors in the patent fee schedule is consistent with the

Strategy for American Innovation

and the goals and objectives outlined in the Strategic Plan. Once the key policy factors are considered, fees are set at, above, or below individual cost recovery levels for the activity or service provided.

For the purpose of discussing the changes in this rule, the rationale for setting or adjusting individual fees are grouped into two major categories: (1) Fees where large entity amounts changed from the current amount by greater than plus or minus 5 percent and 10 dollars (described below in section (B)); and (2) fees where large entity amounts stayed the same or did

not

change by greater than plus or minus 5 percent and 10 dollars (described below in section (C)). The purpose of the categorization is to identify large fee changes for the reader and provide an individual fee rationale for such changes. The categorization is based on changes in large entity fee amounts because percentage changes for small entity fees that are in place today would be the same as the percentage change for the large entity, and the dollar change would be half of that of the large entity change. Therefore, there will never be an instance where the small entity fee change meets the greater than plus or minus 5 percent and 10 dollars criteria and a large entity fee change does not.

The “

USPTO Section 10 Fee Setting—Table of Patent Fee Changes”

is available at

http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/fees.jsp

and the tables in

Part VI.

The table of patent fee changes presents the current fees for large and small entities and the final fees for large, small, and micro entities. The table also includes the dollar and percent changes between current fees and final fees for large entity fees only as well as the FY 2011, FY 2010, and FY 2009 unit costs. The Discussion of Specific Rules in this rulemaking contains a complete listing of fees that are set or adjusted in this patent fee schedule.

A. Discounts for Small and Micro Entity Applicants

The fees described below include discounts for small and micro entity applicants as required by section 10. The current small entity discount scheme changes when fees are set in accordance with section 10. That is, section 10(a) provides that the USPTO can set or adjust “any fee established, authorized or charged under” Title 35, U.S.C., and section 10(b) of the Act provides that fees set or adjusted under section 10(a) authority for “filing, searching, examining, issuing, appealing, and maintaining patent applications and patents” will be reduced by 50 percent for small entities and 75 percent for micro entities. A small entity is defined in 35 U.S.C. 41(h)(1), and a micro entity is defined in 35 U.S.C. 123.

Currently, the small entity discount is only available for statutory fees provided under 35 U.S.C. 41(a), (b), and (d)(1). Section 10(b) extends the discount to some patent fees not contained in 35 U.S.C. 41(a), (b), and (d)(1). Thus, in this final rule, the Office applies the discount to a number of fees that currently do not receive the small entity discount. There is only one fee for which a small entity discount is currently offered that is ineligible for a small entity discount under the final fee schedule: the fee for a statutory disclaimer under 37 CFR 1.20(d). This fee is currently $160 for a large entity and $80 for a small entity. In this final rule, this fee is $160 for all entities (i.e., large, small, and micro) because this particular fee does not fall under one of the six categories of patent fees set forth in section 10(b).

Additionally, the new contested case proceedings created under the Act (

inter partes

review, post-grant review, covered business method patent review, and derivation proceedings) are trial services, not appeals. As such, the fees for these services do not fall under any of the six categories under section 10(b), and therefore are not eligible for discounts. Appeals before the PTAB involve contests to an examiner's findings. The new trial services, however, determine whether a patent should have been granted. They involve discovery, including cross-examination of witnesses. Further, the AIA amends sections of Title 35 that specifically reference “appeals,” while separately discussing

inter partes

review, post-grant review, and derivation proceedings, highlighting that these new services are not appeals.

See

section 7 of the AIA (amending 35 U.S.C. 6).

B. Fees With Proposed Changes of Greater Than Plus or Minus 5 Percent and 10 Dollars

For those fees that change by greater than plus or minus 5 percent and 10 dollars, the individual fee rationale discussion is divided into four general subcategories: (1) Fees to be set at cost recovery; (2) fees to be set below cost recovery; (3) fees to be set above cost recovery; and (4) fees that are not set using cost data as an indicator. Table 4 contains a summary of the individual fees that are discussed in each of the subcategories referenced above.

For purposes of discussion within this section, where new micro entity fees are set, it is expected that an applicant or a patent holder would have paid the current small entity fee (or large entity in the event there is not a small entity fee), and dollar and percent changes are calculated from the current small entity fee amount (or large entity fee, where applicable).

It should be noted that the “Utility Search Fee” listed below does not meet the “change by greater than plus or minus 5 percent and 10 dollars” threshold, but is nonetheless included in the discussion for comparison of total filing, search, and examination fees—all three of which are due upon filing an application.

Table 4—Patent Fee Changes

[By greater than plus or minus 5 percent and 10 dollars]

Fee description

Current fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Final fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Dollar change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Percent change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

(1) Fees set at cost recovery:

Request for Prioritized Examination

$4,800

$4,000

−$800

−17%

($2,400)

($2,000)

(−$400)

(−17%)

[N/A]

[$1,000]

[−$1,400]

[−58%]

(2) Fees set below cost recovery:

Basic Filing Fee—Utility

$390

$280

−$110

−28%

($195)

($140)

(−$55)

(−28%)

[N/A]

[$70]

[−$125]

[−64%]

Utility Search Fee

$620

$600

−$20

−3%

($310)

($300)

(−$10)

(−3%)

[N/A]

[$150]

[−$160]

[−52%]

Utility Examination Fee

$250

$720

+$470

+188%

($125)

($360)

(+$235)

(+188%)

[N/A]

[$180]

[+$55]

[+44%]

Total Basic Filing, Search, and Exam—Utility

$1,260

$1,600

+$340

+27%

($630)

($800)

(+170)

(+27%)

[N/A]

[$400]

[−$230]

[−37%]

First Request for Continued Examination (RCE)

$930

$1,200

+$270

+29%

($465)

($600)

(+$135)

(+29%)

[N/A]

[$300]

[−$165]

[−35%]

Second and Subsequent RCEs (NEW)

$930

$1,700

+$770

+83%

($465)

($850)

(+$385)

(+83%)

[N/A]

[$425]

[−$40]

[−9%]

Notice of Appeal

$630

$800

+$170

+27%

($315)

($400)

(+$85)

(+27%)

[N/A]

[$200]

[−$115]

[−37%]

Filing a Brief in Support of an Appeal in Application or

Ex Parte

Reexamination Proceeding

$630

$0

−$630

−100%

($315)

($0)

(−$315)

(−100%)

[N/A]

[$0]

[−$315]

[−100%]

Appeal Forwarding Fee for Appeal in Examination or

Ex Parte

Reexamination Proceeding or Filing a Brief in Support of an Appeal in

Inter Partes

Reexamination (NEW)

$2,000

+$2,000

N/A

NEW

($1,000)

(+$1,000)

(N/A)

[$500]

[+$500]

[N/A]

Total Appeal Fees (Paid before Examiner Answer)

$1,260

$800

−$460

−37%

($630)

($400)

(−$230)

(−37%)

[N/A]

[$200]

[−$430]

[−68%]

Total Appeal Fees (Paid after Examiner Answer)

$1,260

$2,800

+$1,540

+122%

($630)

($1,400)

(+$770)

(+122%)

[N/A]

[$700]

[+$70]

[+11%]

Ex Parte

Reexamination

$17,750

$12,000

−$5,750

−32%

(N/A)

($6,000)

(−$11,750)

(−66%)

[N/A]

[$3,000]

[−$14,750]

[−83%]

Processing and Treating a Request for Supplemental Examination—Up to 20 Sheets

$5,140

$4,400

−$740

−14%

(N/A)

($2,200)

(−$2,940)

(−57%)

[N/A]

[$1,100]

[−$4,040]

[−79%]

Ex Parte

Reexamination Ordered as a Result of a Supplemental Examination Proceeding

$16,120

$12,100

−$4,020

−25%

(N/A)

($6,050)

(−$10,070)

(−62%)

[N/A]

[$3,025]

[−$13,095]

[−81%]

Total Supplemental Examination Fees

$21,260

$16,500

−$4,760

−22%

(N/A)

($8,250)

(−$13,010)

(−61%)

[N/A]

[$4,125]

[−$17,135]

[−81%]

Inter Partes

Review Request—Up to 20 Claims (Per Claim Fee for Each Claim in Excess of 20 is $200) (NEW)

$9,000

+$9,000

N/A

NEW

(N/A)

(N/A)

(N/A)

[N/A]

[N/A]

[N/A]

Inter Partes

Review Post Institution Fee—Up to 15 Claims (Per Claim Fee for Each Claim in Excess of 15 is $400) (NEW)

$14,000

+$14,000

N/A

NEW

(N/A)

(N/A)

(N/A)

[N/A]

[N/A]

[N/A]

Total Inter Partes Review Fees (For Current Fees, Per Claim Fee for Each Claim in Excess of 20 is $600)

$27,200

$23,000

−$4,200

−15%

(N/A)

(N/A)

(N/A)

(N/A)

[N/A]

[N/A]

[N/A]

[N/A]

Post-Grant Review or Covered Business Method Patent Review Request—Up to 20 Claims (Per Claim Fee for Each Claim in Excess of 20 is $250) (NEW)

$12,000

+$12,000

N/A

NEW

(N/A)

(N/A)

(N/A)

[N/A]

[N/A]

[N/A]

Post-Grant Review or Covered Business Method Patent Review Post Institution Fee—Up to 15 Claims (Per Claim Fee for Each Claim in Excess of 15 is $550) (NEW)

$18,000

+$18,000

N/A

NEW

(N/A)

(N/A)

(N/A)

[N/A]

[N/A]

[N/A]

Total Post-Grant Review or Covered Business Method Patent Fees (For Current Fees,

Per Claim Fee for Each Claim in Excess of 20 is $800)

$35,800

$30,000

−$5,800

−16%

(N/A)

(N/A)

(N/A)

(N/A)

[N/A]

[N/A]

[N/A]

[N/A]

(3) Fees set above cost recovery:

Publication Fee for Early, Voluntary, or Normal Publication (Pre Grant Publication or PG Pub)

$300

$0

−$300

−100%

(N/A)

($0)

(−$300)

(−100%)

[N/A]

[$0]

[−$300]

[−100%]

Utility Issue Fee

$1,770

$960

−$810

−46%

($885)

($480)

(−$405)

(−46%

[N/A]

[$240]

[−$645]

[−73%]

Combined Total—Pre-grant Publication and Issue Fee—Utility

$2,070

$960

−$1,110

−54%

($1,185)

($480)

(−$705)

(−59%)

[N/A]

[$240]

[−$895]

[−77%]

Maintenance Fee Due at 3.5 Years (1st Stage)

$1,150

$1,600

+$450

+39%

($575)

($800)

(+$225)

(+39%)

[N/A]

[$400]

[−$175]

[−30%]

Maintenance Fee Due at 7.5 Years (2nd Stage)

$2,900

$3,600

+$700

+24%

($1,450)

($1,800)

(+$350)

(+24%)

[N/A]

[$900]

[−$550]

[−38%]

Maintenance Fee Due at 11.5 Years (3rd Stage)

$4,810

$7,400

+$2,590

+54%

($2,405)

($3,700)

(+$1,295)

(+54%)

[N/A]

[$1,850]

[−$555]

[−23%]

(4) Fees not set using cost data as an indicator:

Extensions for Response within 1st Month

$150

$200

+$50

+33%

($75)

($100)

(+$25)

(+33%)

[N/A]

[$50]

[−$25]

[−33%]

Extensions for Response within 2nd Month

$570

$600

+$30

+5%

($285)

($300)

(+$15)

(+5%)

[N/A]

[$150]

[−$135]

[−47%]

Extensions for Response within 3rd Month

$1,290

$1,400

+$110

+9%

($645)

($700)

(+$55)

(+9%)

[N/A]

[$350]

[−$295]

[−46%]

Extensions for Response within 4th Month

$2,010

$2,200

+$190

+9%

($1,005)

($1,100)

(+$95)

(+9%)

[N/A]

[$550]

[−$455]

[−45%]

Extensions for Response within 5th Month

$2,730

$3,000

+$270

+10%

($1,365)

($1,500)

(+$135)

(+10%)

[N/A]

[$750]

[−$615]

[−45%]

Utility Application Size Fee—For each Additional 50 Sheets that Exceed 100 Sheets

$320

$400

+$80

+25%

($160)

($200)

(+$40)

(+25%)

[N/A]

[$100]

[−$60]

[−38%]

Independent Claims in Excess of 3

$250

$420

+$170

+68%

($125)

($210)

(+$85)

(+68%)

[N/A]

[$105]

[−$20]

[−16%]

Claims in Excess of 20

$62

$80

+$18

+29%

($31)

($40)

(+$9)

(+29%)

[N/A]

[$20]

[−$11]

[−35%]

Multiple Dependent Claim

$460

$780

+$320

+70%

($230)

($390)

(+$160)

(+70%)

[N/A]

[$195]

[−$35]

[−15%]

Correct Inventorship After First Action on the Merits (NEW)

$600

+$600

N/A

NEW

($300)

(+$300)

(N/A)

[$150]

[+$150]

[N/A]

Derivation Petition Fee

$400

$400

$0

0%

(N/A)

N/A

(N/A)

(N/A)

[N/A]

N/A

[N/A]

[N/A]

Assignments Submitted Electronically (NEW)

$40

$0

−$40

−100%

(N/A)

(N/A)

(N/A)

(N/A)

[N/A]

[N/A]

[N/A]

[N/A]

Assignments Not Submitted Electronically

$40

$40

$0

0%

(N/A)

(N/A)

(N/A)

(N/A)

[N/A]

[N/A]

[N/A]

[N/A]

(1) Fees to be set at Cost Recovery

The following fee is set at cost recovery. This fee supports the policy factor of “

offering patent prosecution options to applicants”

by providing applicants with flexibilities in seeking patent protection. A discussion of the rationale for the proposed change follows.

Request for Prioritized Examination:

Table 5—Request for Prioritized Examination Fee Changes

Fee information

Current fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Final fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Dollar change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Percent change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Request for Prioritized Examination

$4,800

$4,000

−$800

−17%

($2,400)

($2,000)

(−$400)

(−17%)

[N/A]

[$1,000]

[−$1,400]

[−58%]

Table 6—Request for Prioritized Examination Cost Information

Cost information

FY 2011

Cost calculation is available in the proposed rule published in the Federal Register Changes To Implement the Prioritized Examination Track (Track I) of the Enhanced Examination Timing Control Procedures, 76 FR 6369 (Feb. 4, 2011).

$4,000

A patent applicant may seek prioritized examination at the time of filing an original utility or plant application or a continuation application thereof or upon filing an RCE in compliance with 37 CFR 1.114. A single request for prioritized examination may be granted for an RCE in a plant or utility application. When in the prioritized examination track, an application will be accorded special status during prosecution until a final disposition is reached. The target for prioritized examination is to provide a final disposition within twelve months, on average, of prioritized status being granted. This prioritized examination procedure is part of an effort by the USPTO to

offer patent prosecution options to applicants

to provide applicants greater control over the timing of examination of their applications. The procedure thereby enables applicants to have greater certainty in their patent rights sooner.

The AIA established the current large and small entity fees for prioritized examination, which the Office put in place in 2011.

See

Changes To Implement the Prioritized Examination Track (Track I) of the Enhanced Examination Timing Control Procedures Under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, 76 FR 59050 (Sept. 23, 2011). The large entity fee is greater than the Office's cost to process a single prioritized examination request to subsidize the fee revenue lost from providing small entity applicants a 50 percent discount from the large entity fee. The cost calculation for the prioritized examination fees is available in the proposed rule.

See

Changes To Implement the Prioritized Examination Track (Track I) of the Enhanced Examination Timing Control Procedures, 76 FR 6369 (Feb. 4, 2011). The higher large entity fee, coupled with the lower small entity fee, recovers the Office's total cost for conducting all prioritized examinations.

Under section 10, micro entities are eligible to receive a 75 percent discount from the large entity fee for prioritized examination. Here, the Office sets the large entity fee at cost ($4,000), instead of further increasing the fee to subsidize the new micro entity discount. The Office will recover this subsidy through other fees that are set above cost recovery, rather than through a separate, higher, large entity fee for prioritized examinations. The Office believes this system will

foster innovation

and allow for ease of entry into the patent system. Setting the large entity prioritized examination fee further above cost would contradict this policy factor and hinder fast patent protection for large entity applicants.

(2) Fees To Be Set Below Cost Recovery

There are eight fees that the Office sets below cost recovery that meet the greater than plus or minus 5 percent and 10 dollars criteria. The policy factors relevant to setting fees below cost recovery are

fostering innovation

and

offering patent prosecution options to applicants.

Applying these policy factors to set fees below cost recovery benefits the patent system by keeping the fees low and making patent filing and prosecution more available to applicants, thus

fostering innovation.

Although many fees are increased from current fee rates under this rule, the Office is not increasing “pre-grant” fees (e.g., filing, search, and examination) to avoid creating a barrier to entry as otherwise might have been created if fees were set to recover the full cost of the activity. The fee schedule

offers patent prosecution options

to provide applicants flexible and cost-effective options for seeking and completing patent protection. This strategy provides multipart and staged fees for certain patent prosecution and contested case activities. A discussion of the rationale for each fee adjustment follows.

Basic Filing, Search, and Examination—Utility:

Table 7—Basic Filing, Search, and Examination—Utility Fee Changes

Fee description

Current fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Final fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Dollar change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Percent change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Basic Filing Fee—Utility

$390

$280

−$110

−28%

($195)

($140)

(−$55)

(−28%)

[N/A]

[$70]

[−$125]

[−64%]

Utiliity Search Fee

$620

$600

−$20

−3%

($310)

($300)

(−$10)

(−3%)

[N/A]

[$150]

[−160]

[−52%]

Utility Examination Fee

$250

$720

+$470

+188%

($125)

($360)

(+$235)

(+188%)

[N/A]

[$180]

[+$55]

[+$44%]

Total Basic Filing, Search, and Exam—Utility

$1,260

$1,600

+$340

+27%

($630)

($800)

(+170)

(+27%)

[N/A]

[$400]

[−$230]

[−37%]

Table 8—Basic Filing, Search, and Examination—Utility Fee Historical Cost Information

Historical unit cost information

FY 2011

$/% of Total

FY 2010

$/% of Total

FY 2009

$/% of Total

Basic Filing Fee—Utility

$234/6%

$243/6%

$241/7%

Utility Search Fee

$1,521/43%

$1,694/43%

$1,520/41%

Utility Examination Fee

$1,814/51%

$1,969/51%

$1,904/52%

Total Unit Cost

$3,569/100%

$3,906/100%

$3,665/100%

A non-provisional application for a patent requires filing, search, and examination fees to be paid upon filing. Currently, the large entity basic filing, search, and examination fees for a utility patent recover slightly more than one-third of the average unit cost for processing, searching, and examining a patent application, while the fee for a small entity application recovers around 17 percent of the average unit cost. The Office subsidizes the below-price filing, search, and examination fees through higher “back-end” fees, for example, above cost issue and maintenance fees. The Office maintains this “back-end” subsidy of “front-end” fees structure to achieve the policy goal of

fostering innovation.

The current fee rates and respective costs associated with each stage of patent prosecution are out of alignment. For example, on average, 94 percent of the costs associated with filing, searching, and examining an application occur in the search and examination stages (

see

Table 8). Approximately half of those costs are estimated to occur in the examination stage (

see

Table 8), but only 20 percent of the total filing, search, and examination fees are derived from the examination fee (

see

Table 9). To adjust this fee structure and help stabilize the USPTO funding model, the Office is increasing the total filing, search, and examination fees and realigning the fee rates to more closely track the cost pattern by stage of prosecution (i.e., filing, search, and examination), while keeping each stage below actual cost.

Table 9—Utility Basic Filing, Search, and Examination—Current, Proposed, and Final Fee Information

Proposed fee information

Current

$/% of Total

Final

$/% of Total

Basic Filing Fee—Utility

$390/31%

$280/17%

Utility Search Fee

$620/49%

$600/38%

Utility Examination Fee

$250/20%

$720/45%

Total Fees

$1,260/100%

$1,600/100%

In this rule, the Office sets the combined total fee for filing, search, and examination at $1,600. This adjustment keeps the cost of entering the patent system at or below cost for large, small, and new micro entity applicants—45 percent, 22 percent, and 11 percent of FY 2011 total cost, respectively. Likewise, the adjustment for filing, search, and examination fees continues to ensure that these initial fees remain a small part (10 percent) of the cost to apply for patent protection when compared to the average legal fees to file for a patent. The filing, search, and examination fees are also only 10 percent of the total fees paid for a patent through maintenance to full term (i.e., filing, search, examination, issue, and maintenance).

The overall increase in filing, search, and examination fees

facilitates effective administration of the patent system,

because it encourages applicants to submit only the most thoughtful and unambiguous applications, therefore facilitating examiners' ability to provide prompt, quality non-final and final actions. At the same time, the overall increase in filing, search, and examination fees helps to stabilize the Office's revenue stream by collecting more revenue when an application is filed from all patent applicants, instead of collecting revenue when a patent is later published or issued from only successful applicants. Also, while the Office increases application fees, reducing the pre-grant publication and issue fees offsets these increases.

As discussed above, based on economic indicators, the Office projects a 5.0 percent growth rate in application filings for each year from FY 2013 to FY 2017. Additionally, the Office recognizes that some applicants may choose to reduce the number of applications filed in response to this increase in fees. Based on elasticity estimates, the Office anticipates that this impact will be relatively short-term, lasting for the first two and a half years after the fee increase. The Office estimated that applicants would file 1.3 percent fewer new (serialized) patent applications during FY 2013 than the number estimated to be filed in the absence of a fee increase (with new fee schedule implementation for half the fiscal year). The Office estimated that 2.7 percent fewer new patent applications would be filed during FY 2014 and 4.0 percent fewer new patent applications would be filed during FY 2015 in response to the fee adjustment. Despite this decrease in new patent applications filed when compared to the number filed absent the fee increase, the Office estimated that the overall number of patent applications filed would continue to grow each year, albeit at a lower growth rate in FY 2013 through FY 2015. The Office estimated that beginning in FY 2016, the growth in patent applications filed would return to the same levels anticipated in the absence of a fee increase. To the extent that there is some impact on filings, the Office determined that the benefits of the fee changes outweigh the temporary cost of fewer patent filings. The additional revenue generated from the increase in fees provides sufficient resources to decrease pendency. The reduction in pendency is estimated to increase private patent value by shortening the time for an invention to be commercialized or otherwise obtain value from the exclusive right for the technology. Additional information about this estimate is available at

http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/fees.jsp

, in a document entitled “

USPTO Section 10 Fee Setting—Description of Elasticity Estimates.”

The economic impact of this proposed adjustment is further considered in the cost and benefit analysis included in the

Regulatory Impact Analysis,

available at

http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/fees.jsp

.

It should be noted that utility patent fees are referenced in this section to simplify the discussion of the fee rationale. However, the rationale also applies to the filing, search, and examination fee changes for design, plant, reissue, and PCT national stage fees as outlined in the “

USPTO Section 10 Fee Setting—Table of Patent Fee Changes.”

Request for Continued Examination (RCE)—First Request:

Table 10—First Request for Continued Examination (RCE) Fee Changes

Fee description

Current fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Final fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Dollar change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Percent change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

First Request for Continued Examination (RCE)

$930

$1,200

+$270

+29%

($465)

($600)

(+$135)

(+29%)

[N/A]

[$300]

[−$165]

[−35%]

Table 11—Request for Continued Examination (RCE) Historical Cost Information

Historical unit cost information

FY 2011

FY 2010

FY 2009

Request for Continued Examination (RCE)

$2,070

$1,696

$1,881

Percentage of RCE cost compared to the cost to process a new application

60%

43%

51%

The historical unit cost information is calculated by subtracting the cost to complete a single application with no RCEs from the cost to complete a single application with one RCE. A description of the cost components is available for review in the “

Section 10 Fee Setting—Activity-Based Information and Costing Methodology”

document. It is reasonable to expect that the cost to the Office to complete a single RCE should be less than the cost to complete a new application because an RCE is continuing from work already performed on the original application. The Office's historical cost data demonstrates this, with the cost to process an RCE being, on average, half of the cost to prosecute a new application.

An applicant may file an RCE in an application that is under final rejection (i.e., prosecution is closed) by filing a submission and paying a specified fee within the requisite time period. Applicants typically file an RCE when they choose to continue to prosecute an application before the examiner, rather than appeal a rejection or abandon the

application. In FY 2011 and FY 2012, about 30 percent of applications filed were for RCEs. Generally, around 70 percent of RCE applications filed in a year are for first RCEs and the remaining 30 percent are for a second or subsequent RCE. Given this data, it is reasonable to expect that most outstanding issues are resolved with the first RCE.

In this final rule, the Office divides the fee for RCEs into two parts: (1) A lower fee for a first RCE; and (2) a second, higher fee for a second or subsequent RCE. The Office divided this RCE fee because, as stated before, 70 percent of RCEs are for the first RCE, which indicates that applicants need modest additional time to resolve the outstanding issues with the examiner. Multipart RCE fees demonstrate how the Office seeks to

facilitate effective administration of the patent system

and

offer patent prosecution options to applicants.

The large entity fee for the first RCE is set approximately 36 percent below cost recovery at $1,200 to advance innovation by easing the burden on an applicant needing to resolve outstanding items with an examiner. The USPTO calculated the large entity cost for an RCE at $1,882 by averaging historical costs after estimating the incremental cost to complete a single application with one RCE compared to the cost to complete an application with no RCE. The RCE fee in the current fee structure is set at 74 percent of the total fees for filing, search, and examination ($930 divided by $1,260). The fee relationship of a first RCE to total fees for filing, search, and examination set herein remains the same at 75 percent ($1,200 divided by $1,600).

When an applicant does not agree with a final rejection notice, the applicant has the option to file a notice of appeal as an alternative to filing an RCE. The fee to file a notice of appeal is also set below cost recovery and less than the fee set for the first, and second and subsequent RCEs (

see

appeal fee information in a following section). The USPTO chose this fee relationship to ensure all applicants have viable options to dispute a final rejection when they believe the examiner has erred. These

patent prosecution options

allow applicants to make critical decisions at multiple points in the patent prosecution process.

In addition to dividing the current RCE fee into two parts, the Office is piloting other ways to address RCEs. Specifically, the Office is operating two pilot programs that aim to avoid the need to file an RCE by permitting: (i) An Information Disclosure Statement to be submitted after payment of the issue fee; and (ii) further consideration of after final responses.

The first initiative, called Quick Path Information Disclosure Statement (QPIDS) Pilot, permits an applicant to file an IDS after a final rejection and gives the examiner time to consider whether prosecution should be reopened. If the items of information in the IDS do not require prosecution to be reopened, the application will return to issue, thereby eliminating the need for applicants to file an RCE.

The second initiative, called the After Final Consideration Pilot (AFCP), authorizes a limited amount of non-production time for examiners to consider responses filed after a final rejection with the goal of achieving compact prosecution and increased collaboration between examiners and stakeholders. The Office believes these two pilot programs should reduce the need for RCEs and thereby enable applicants to secure a patent through a single application filing.

Apart from these pilot programs, the USPTO is collaborating with the PPAC on an RCE outreach effort. The objective of this initiative is to identify the reasons why applicants file RCEs, identify any practices for avoiding unnecessary RCEs, and explore new programs or changes in current programs that could reduce the need for some RCEs. The Office recently issued a request for comments on RCE practice in the

Federal Register

(

see

77 FR 72830 (Dec. 6, 2012)) as a part of this multi-step approach to address concerns with respect to RCE practice and engage in related efforts directed at reducing patent application pendency.

Request for Continued Examination (RCE)—Second and Subsequent Request (New):

Table 12—Second and Subsequent Request for Continued Examination (RCE) Fee Changes

Fee description

Current fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Final fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Dollar change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Percent change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Second and Subsequent Requests for Continued Examination (RCE) (NEW)

$930

$1,700

+$770

+83%

($465)

($850)

(+$385)

(+83%)

[N/A]

[$425]

[−$40]

[−9%]

Table 13—Request for Continued Examination (RCE) Historical Cost Information

Historical unit cost information

FY 2011

FY 2010

FY 2009

Request for Continued Examination (RCE)

$2,070

$1,696

$1,881

Percentage of RCE cost compared to the cost to process a new application

60%

43%

51%

The historical unit cost information is calculated by subtracting the cost to complete a single application with no RCEs from the cost to complete a single application with one RCE. A description of the cost components is available for review in the

“Section 10 Fee Setting—Activity-Based Information and Costing Methodology”

document. It is reasonable to expect that the cost to the Office to complete a single RCE should be less than the cost to complete a new application because an RCE is continuing from work already performed on the original application. The Office's historical cost data demonstrates this, as the cost to process an RCE is on average, half of the cost to prosecute a new application.

As discussed previously, in this rule, the Office divides the fee for RCEs into two parts: (1) A lower fee for a first RCE; and (2) a second, higher fee for a second or subsequent RCE. Multipart RCE fees demonstrate how the Office seeks to

facilitate effective administration of the patent system

and

offer patent prosecution options to applicants.

The Office divided this RCE fee because, as noted above, approximately 30 percent of RCEs are for a second or subsequent RCE, which indicates that most applicants generally need only one RCE to resolve outstanding issues with the examiner.

The Office sets the large entity fee for second and subsequent RCEs at $1,700, which is about 10 percent below cost recovery. The USPTO calculated the large entity cost for an RCE at $1,882 by averaging historical costs after estimating the incremental cost to complete a single application with one RCE compared to the cost to complete an application with no RCE.

The Office recognizes that an RCE may be less costly to examine than a new continuing application in certain situations. However, the patent fee structure is designed such that the costs associated with the processing and examination of a new or continuing application are recovered by issue and maintenance fees, allowing for a fee significantly below cost recovery. To avoid setting higher issue and maintenance fees to offset the cost of processing second and subsequent RCEs, the fees for those RCEs are set closer to cost recovery. The Office determined that increasing the issue and/or maintenance fees to offset lower than cost recovery second and subsequent RCEs fees would cause the majority of filers (who do not seek more than one RCE) to subsidize services provided to the small minority of filers who seek two or more RCEs. The Office does not believe such subsidization would be an optimal result.

As discussed earlier, when an applicant does not agree with a final rejection notice, the applicant has the option to file a notice of appeal, for which the fee is also set below cost recovery and less than the fee proposed for the first, and second and subsequent, RCEs (

see

appeal fee information in the following section). The USPTO chose this fee relationship to ensure that all applicants have viable options to dispute a final rejection when they believe the examiner has erred. These

patent prosecution options

allow applicants to make critical decisions at multiple points in the patent prosecution process.

Appeal Fees (Partially New):

Table 14—Appeal Fee Changes

Fee description

Current fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Final fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Dollar change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Percent change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Notice of Appeal

$630

$800

+$170

+27%

($315)

($400)

(+$85)

(+27%)

[N/A]

[$200]

[−$115]

[−37%]

Filing a Brief in Support of an Appeal in Application or

Ex Parte

Reexamination Proceeding

$630

$0

−$630

−100%

($315)

($0)

(−$315)

(−100%)

[N/A]

[$0]

[−$315]

[−100%]

Appeal Forwarding Fee for Appeal in Examination or

Ex Parte

Reexamination Proceeding

or

Filing a Brief in Support of an Appeal in

Inter Partes

Reexamination (NEW)

$2,000

N/A

N/A

NEW

($1,000)

(N/A)

(N/A)

[$500]

[N/A]

[N/A]

Total Appeal Fees

(paid before Examiner Answer)

$1,260

$800

−$460

−37%

($630)

($400)

(−$230)

(−37%)

[N/A]

[$200]

[−$430]

[−68%]

Total Appeal Fees

(paid after Examiner Answer)

$1,260

$2,800

+$1,540

+122%

($630)

($1,400)

(+$770)

(+122%)

[N/A]

[$700]

[+$70]

[+11%]

Table 15—Appeal Fee Historical Cost Information

Historical unit cost information

FY 2011

FY 2010

FY 2009

Notice of Appeal to Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)

$4,799

$4,960

$5,008

Filing a Brief in Support of an Appeal

Appeal Forwarding Fee

An applicant who disagrees with an examiner's final rejection may appeal to the PTAB by filing a notice of appeal and the required fee within the time period provided. An applicant likewise may file a notice of appeal after the applicant's claim(s) has/have been twice rejected, regardless of whether the claim(s) has/have been finally rejected. Further, an applicant may file a notice of appeal after a first rejection in a continuing application if any of the claims in the parent application were previously rejected.

Within two months from the date of filing a notice of appeal, an appellant must file a Brief. Then, the examiner must file an Examiner's Answer. After the Examiner's Answer is mailed, the appeal file is forwarded to the PTAB for review.

Currently, a large entity applicant pays $630 to file a notice of appeal and another $630 when filing a Brief—a total

of $1,260. These current fees only recover approximately 25 percent of the Office's cost of an appeal. In this final rule, the Office increases appeal fees to reduce the gap between fees and cost. At the same time, the Office

offers patent prosecution options to applicants

and stages the appeal fees to recover additional cost at later points in time and thereby minimize the cost impacts on applicants associated with withdrawn final rejections.

In the NPRM, the Office proposed to set a $1,000 notice of appeal fee and a $0 fee when filing the brief. After evaluating comments received from the PPAC and the public, the Office is adjusting the notice of appeal fee down to $800 and setting the $0 fee when filing the brief. The Office recognizes that after some notices of appeal are filed, the matter is resolved, and there is no need to take the ultimate step of forwarding the appeal to the PTAB for a decision. The Office further sets a $2,000 fee to forward the appeal file—containing the appellant's Brief and the Examiner's Answer—to the PTAB for review. This fee is the same as the Office proposed in the NPRM. Under this fee structure, 28 percent of the fee would be paid at the time of notice of appeal, and the remaining 72 percent would be paid after the Examiner's Answer, but only if the appeal is forwarded to the PTAB. The Office estimates that less than 5 percent of applicants who receive final rejections will pay the full fee ($2,800) required to forward an appeal to PTAB. This fee structure allows the appellant to reduce the amount invested in the appeal process until receiving the Examiner's Answer. In fact, when prosecution issues are resolved after the notice of appeal and before forwarding an appeal to the PTAB, a large entity appellant would pay only $800 to obtain an Examiner's Answer, 37 percent less than under the current fee structure.

Staging the appeal fees in this manner allows applicants to pay less in situations when an application is either allowed or reopened instead of being forwarded to the PTAB. This

patent prosecution option

allows applicants to make critical decisions at multiple points in the patent prosecution process. Also, just as the Office is exploring ways to minimize unnecessary RCE filings, the Office is likewise exploring other options, including pilot programs, in an effort to reduce the need to appeal to the PTAB.

Ex Parte Reexamination:

Table 16—Ex Parte Reexamination Fee Changes

Fee Description

Current fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Final fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Dollar change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Percent change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Ex Parte

Reexamination

$17,750

$12,000

−$5,750

−32%

(N/A)

($6,000)

(−$11,750)

(−66%)

[N/A]

[$3,000]

[−$14,750]

[−83%]

Table 17—Ex Parte Reexamination Historical Cost Information

Historical unit cost information

FY 2011

FY 2010

FY 2009

Ex Parte

Reexamination

$19,626

$16,648

$17,162

Table 18—Ex Parte Reexamination Prospective Cost Information

Prospective cost information

FY 2013

Supplemental Examination Fee Methodology for Final Rule (77 FR 48828 (Aug. 14, 2012)) available at

http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/supp_exam_fee_meth_fr.pdf

.

$17,750

Any person (including anonymously) may file a petition for the

ex parte

reexamination of a patent that has been issued. The Office initially determines if the petition presents “a substantial new question of patentability” as to the challenged claims. If such a new question has been presented, the Office will order an

ex parte

reexamination of the patent for the relevant claims.

After noting a disparity between the previous

ex parte

reexamination fee ($2,520) and the cost of completing the proceeding ($17,750), the Office increased the fee using its authority under 35 U.S.C. section 41(d). (

See

Changes To Implement the Supplemental Examination Provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act and To Revise Reexamination Fees, 77 FR 48828 (Aug. 14, 2012)).

In the NPRM, the Office proposed setting the

ex parte

reexamination fee at $15,000, which is 15 percent below the Office's cost of conducting the proceeding, and introduced new small and micro entity discounts for an

ex parte

reexamination (in accordance with section 10, third party requestors are not eligible for the micro entity discounts).

In this final rule, the Office further reduces the large entity fee for

ex parte

reexamination from $15,000 (as proposed in the NPRM) to $12,000, which is 32 percent below the Office's cost of conducting the proceeding. Setting the fee below cost permits easier access to the

ex parte

reexamination process, which benefits the patent system and patent quality by removing low quality patents.

The

ex parte

reexamination fee is due at the time of filing, however, it is in essence a two-part fee. First, part of the

ex parte

reexamination fee helps to recover the costs for analyzing the request and drafting the decision whether to grant or deny

ex parte

reexamination. This is based on the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.20(c)(7) for a denied request for

ex parte

reexamination ($3,600, $1,800 for a small entity, and $900 for a micro entity patentee). Second, the remaining part of the fee helps to recover the costs for conducting

ex parte

reexamination if the request for

ex parte

reexamination is

granted. This is based on the

ex parte

reexamination fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.20(c)(1) less the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.20(c)(7) for a denied request for

ex parte

reexamination ($12,000 less $3,600 equals $8,400 for a large entity; $6,000 less $1,800 equals $4,200 for a small entity; and $3,000 less $900 equals $2,100 for a micro entity patentee).

Supplemental Examination:

Table 19—Supplemental Examination Fee Changes

Fee description

Current fees

Large (

small)

[micro]

entity

Final fees

Large (

small)

[micro]

entity

Dollar change

Large (

small)

[micro]

entity

Percent change

Large (

small)

[micro]

entity

Processing and Treating a Request for Supplemental Examination—Up to 20 Sheets

$5,140

(N/A)

[N/A]

$4,400

($2,200)

[$1,100]

−$740

(−$2,940)

[−$4,040]

−14%

(−57%)

[−79%]

Ex Parte

Reexamination Ordered as a Result of a Supplemental Examination Proceeding

$16,120

(N/A)

[N/A]

$12,100

($6,050)

[$3,025]

−$4,020

(−$10,070)

[−$13,095]

−25%

(−62%)

[−81%]

Total Supplemental Examination Fees

$21,260

(N/A)

[N/A]

$16,500

($8,250)

[$4,125]

−$4,760

(−$13,010)

[−$17,135]

−22%

(−61%)

[−81%]

Table 20—Supplemental Examination Prospective Cost Information

Prospective cost information

FY 2013

Supplemental Examination Fee Methodology for Final Rule (77 FR 48828 (Aug. 14, 2012))

available at http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/supp_exam_fee_meth_fr.pdf

Supplemental Examination Request *

$5,180

Supplemental Examination Reexamination

16,120

Total Supplemental Examination Costs

21,300

* In the final rule, the Office estimated its fiscal year 2013 cost for processing and treating a request for supplemental examination to be $5,180. The Office also estimated that the document size fees will recover an average of $40 per request for supplemental examination. Therefore, the Office added new § 1.20(k)(1) to set a fee of $5,140 for processing and treating a request for supplemental examination (the estimated 2013 cost amount rounded to the nearest ten dollars minus $40).

Supplemental examination is a new proceeding created by the AIA with an effective date of September 16, 2012 (

see

Changes To Implement the Supplemental Examination Provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act and To Revise Reexamination Fees, 77 FR 48828 (Aug. 14, 2012)). A patent owner may request a supplemental examination of a patent by the Office to consider, reconsider, or correct information believed to be relevant to the patent. This proceeding will help the patent owner preempt inequitable conduct challenges to the patent. The need for this proceeding arises only after a patent owner recognizes that there is information that should have been brought to the attention of the Office to consider or reconsider during the application process, or information submitted during the application process that needs to be corrected.

The current fees for the request for supplemental examination and the

ex parte

reexamination ordered as a result of a supplemental examination proceeding are $5,140 and $16,120, respectively, as set using the Office's authority under 35 U.S.C. 41(d).

In the NPRM, the Office proposed to adjust supplemental examination fees to 15 percent below cost at $18,000 ($4,400 for the request and $13,600 for the reexamination). After updating the patent operating plans and corresponding aggregate costs in response to public comments, the Office determined that it could reduce the supplemental examination fee further while continuing to ensure that the aggregate revenue equals aggregate cost. In this rule, the Office is reducing the fee for conducting an

ex parte

reexamination ordered as a result of a supplemental examination to $12,100 and setting the total supplemental examination fees at $16,500 ($4,400 for the request and $12,100 for the reexamination), which is 22 percent below the Office's cost for these services.

The Office believes these reduced fee amounts continue to be sufficient to encourage applicants to submit applications with all relevant information during initial examination, yet low enough to

facilitate effective administration of the patent system

by providing patentees with a procedure to immunize a patent from an inequitable conduct challenge.

Inter Partes Review:

Table 21— Inter Partes Review Fee Changes

Fee description

Current fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Final fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Dollar change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Percent change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Inter Partes

Review Request—Up to 20 Claims (Per Claim Fee for Each Claim in Excess of 20 is $200) (NEW)

NEW

$9,000

(N/A)

[N/A]

N/A

(N/A)

[N/A]

N/A

(N/A)

[N/A]

Inter Partes

Review Post Institution Fee—Up to 15 Claims (Per Claim Fee for Each Claim in Excess of 15 is $400) (NEW)

NEW

$14,000

(N/A)

[N/A]

N/A

(N/A)

[N/A]

N/A

(N/A)

[N/A]

Total Inter Partes Review Fees (For Current Fees, Per Claim Fee for Each Claim in Excess of 20 is $600)

$27,200

(N/A)

[N/A]

$23,000

(N/A)

[N/A]

−$4,200

(N/A)

[N/A]

−15%

(N/A)

[N/A]

Table 22—Inter Partes Review Prospective Cost Information

Prospective cost information

FY 2013

The Total

Inter Partes

Review cost calculation of $27,200 included in Changes to Implement

Inter Partes

Review Proceedings, Post-Grant Review Proceedings, and Transitional Program for Covered Business Method Patents, 77 FR 48680 (Aug. 14, 2012) is available for review at

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-08-14/pdf/2012-17906.pdf.

The Office estimated that 35 hours of Judge time would be required during review and used this as the basis for estimating the cost for the

Inter Partes

Review. The IT-related costs are included in the Review Request portion of the fee.

Description

Base cost

Per claim cost

Inter Partes

Review Request—up to 20 claims

$10,500

> 20 = $200

Inter Partes

Review Post Institution Fee—up to 15 claims

16,700

> 15 = $400

Total Inter Partes Review Costs

27,200

N/A

Inter partes

review is a new trial proceeding created by the AIA with an effective date of September 16, 2012 (

see

Changes to Implement

Inter Partes

Review Proceedings, Post-Grant Review Proceedings, and Transitional Program for Covered Business Method Patents 77 FR 48680 (Aug. 14, 2012).

Inter partes

review allows the Office to review the patentability of one or more claims in a patent only on a ground that could be raised under 35 U.S.C. 102 or 103, and only on the basis of prior art consisting of patents or printed publications. The

inter partes

review process begins when a third party files a petition nine months after the grant of a patent. An

inter partes

review may be instituted upon a showing that there is a reasonable likelihood that the petitioner would prevail with respect to at least one claim challenged. If the review is instituted and not dismissed, the PTAB will issue a final determination within one year of institution. The period can be extended for good cause for up to six months from the date of one year after instituting the review.

In this final rule, the Office sets the

inter partes

review fees at a level below the Office's cost recovery and improves the fee payment structure. The Office sets four separate fees for

inter partes

review, which a petitioner would pay upon filing a petition. The Office also chooses to return fees for post-institution services should a review not be instituted. Similarly, the Office establishes that fees paid for post-institution review of a large number of claims will be returned if the Office only institutes the review of a subset of the requested claims.

The USPTO sets the fee for an

inter partes

review petition at $9,000 for up to 20 claims. This fee would not be returned or refunded to the petitioner even if the review is not instituted.

In addition, the USPTO sets a per claim fee of $200 for each claim requested for review in excess of 20. This fee would not be returned or refunded to the petitioner if the review is not instituted or if the institution is limited to a subset of the requested claims.

The USPTO also sets the

inter partes

review post-institution fee at $14,000 for a review of up to 15 claims. This fee would be returned to the petitioner if the Office does not institute a review. Likewise, the Office sets a per claim fee of $400 for review of each claim in excess of 15 during the post-institution trial. The entire post-institution fee would be returned to the petitioner if the Office does not institute a review. The entire excess claims fee would be returned if review of 15 or fewer claims is instituted. If the Office reviews more than 15 claims, but fewer than all of the requested claims, it would return part of the fee for each claim the Office did not review.

For example, under this final rule, if a party requests

inter partes

review of 52 claims, the petitioner would pay a single fee up front comprising two parts and totaling $44,200. The first part is for determining whether to institute the review and would include the base fee ($9,000) plus a fee of $200 for each of the additional 32 claims (52 minus 20), which equates to an additional $6,400 for a total review request fee of $15,400 ($9,000 plus $6,400). The second part of the fee is for when the review is instituted and includes the base fee of $14,000 plus a fee of $400 for each of the additional 37 claims (52 minus 15),

which equates to an additional $14,800 for a total post institution fee of $28,800 ($14,000 plus $14,800). In addition, under this rule, if the petitioner seeks review of 52 claims, but the Office only institutes review of 40 claims, the Office would return $4,800 (it did not institute review of the 41st through 52nd claim for which review was requested). Alternatively, if the review is not instituted at all, the portion of the fee covering the trial would be returned (i.e., the base post-institution fee of $14,000 as well as the $14,800 for claims over 15, for a total of $28,800).

The Office sets these two claim thresholds—one for petitions (up to 20 claims) and the other for the post-institution trials (up to 15 claims)—because it anticipates that it will not institute review of 25 percent of claims for which review is requested. The Office bases this approach on its analysis of the initial

inter partes

reexaminations filed after September 15, 2011, as well as the new opportunity for patent owners to file a response to the petition before the Office determines whether and for which claims to institute review.

This approach also considers certain policy factors, such as

fostering innovation

by facilitating greater access to the

inter partes

review proceedings and thereby removing low quality patents from the patent system.

Post-Grant Review or Covered Business Method Patent Review:

Table 23—Post-Grant Review or Covered Business Method Patent Review Fee Changes

Fee description

Current fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Final fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Dollar change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Percent change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Post-Grant Review or Covered Business Method Patent Review Request—Up to 20 Claims (Per Claim Fee for Each Claim in Excess of 20 is $250) (NEW)

NEW

$12,000

(N/A)

[N/A]

N/A

(N/A)

[N/A]

N/A

(N/A)

[N/A]

Post-Grant Review or Covered Business Method Patent Review Post Institution Fee—Up to 15 Claims (Per Claim Fee for Each Claim in Excess of 15 is $550) (NEW)

NEW

$18,000

(N/A)

[N/A]

N/A

(N/A)

[N/A]

N/A

(N/A)

[N/A]

Total Post-Grant Review or Covered Business Method Patent Review Fees (For Current Fees, Per Claim Fee for Each Claim in Excess of 20 is $800)

$35,800

(N/A)

[N/A]

$30,000

(N/A)

[N/A]

−$5,800

(N/A)

[N/A]

−16%

(N/A)

[N/A]

Table 24—Post-Grant Review or Covered Business Method Patent Review Prospective Cost Information

Prospective cost information

FY 2013

The Total Post-Grant Review cost calculation of $35,800 included in Changes to Implement

Inter Partes

Review Proceedings, Post-Grant Review Proceedings, and Transitional Program for Covered Business Method Patents, 77 FR 48680 (Aug. 14, 2012) is available for review at

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-08-14/pdf/2012-17906.pdf.

The Office estimated that 50 hours of Judge time would be required during review and used this as the basis for estimating the cost for the Post-Grant Review. The IT-related costs are included in the Review Request portion of the fee.

Description

Base cost

Per claim cost

Post-Grant Review or Covered Business Method Patent Review Request—up to 20 claims

$14,700

> 20 = $250

Post-Grant Review or Covered Business Method Patent Review Post Institution Fee—up to 15 claims

21,100

> 15 = $550

Total Post-Grant Review Costs

35,800

N/A

Post-grant review is a new trial proceeding created by the AIA with an effective date of September 16, 2012 (

see

Changes to Implement

Inter Partes

Review Proceedings, Post-Grant Review Proceedings, and Transitional Program for Covered Business Method Patents, 77 FR 48680 (Aug. 14, 2012)). Post-grant review allows the Office to review the patentability of one or more claims in a patent on any ground that could be raised under 35 U.S.C. 282(b)(2) and (b)(3) in effect on September 16, 2012. The post-grant review process begins when a third party files a petition within nine months of the grant of a patent. A post-grant review may be instituted upon a showing that it is more likely than not that at least one challenged claim is unpatentable or that the petition raises an unsettled legal question that is important to other patents or patent applications. If the review is instituted and not dismissed, the PTAB will issue a final determination within one year of institution. This period can be extended for good cause for up to six months from the date of one year after instituting the review.

In this final rule, the Office sets the post-grant review fee at a level below the Office's cost recovery and improves the fee payment structure. The Office sets four separate fees for post-grant review, which the petitioner would pay upon filing a petition for post-grant review. The Office also chooses to return fees for post-institution services if a review is not instituted. Similarly, the Office establishes that fees paid for a post-institution review of a large

number of claims will be returned if the Office only institutes the review of a subset of the requested claims. The same structure and fees apply for covered business method review.

The Office sets the fee for a post-grant review petition at $12,000 for up to 20 claims. This fee would not be returned or refunded to the petitioner even if the review is not instituted by the Office.

In addition, the Office sets a per claim fee of $250 for each claim in excess of 20. This fee would not be returned or refunded to the petitioner if the review is not instituted, or if the institution is limited to a subset of the requested claims.

The USPTO also sets a post-grant review post-institution fee at $18,000 for post-institution review of up to 15 claims. This fee would be returned to the petitioner if the Office does not institute a review. Likewise, the Office sets a per claim fee of $550 for review of each claim in excess of 15 during the post-institution review. The entire fee would be returned to the petitioner if the Office does not institute a review. The excess claims fees would be returned if review of 15 or fewer claims is instituted. If the Office reviews more than 15 claims, but fewer than all of the requested claims, it would return part of the fee for each claim that was not instituted.

For example, under this final rule, a party seeking post-grant review of 52 claims would pay a single fee up front comprising two parts and totaling $58,350. The first part is for determining whether to institute the review and would include the base fee ($12,000) plus a fee of $250 for each of the additional 32 claims (52 minus 20), which equates to an additional $8,000 for a total review request fee of $20,000 ($12,000 plus $8,000). The second part of the fee is for when the review is instituted and includes the base fee of $18,000 plus a fee of $550 for each of the additional 37 claims (52 minus 15), which equates to an additional $20,350 for a total post institution fee of $38,350 ($18,000 plus $20,350). In addition, under this rule, if the petitioner requests review of 52 claims, but the Office only institutes review of 40 claims, then the Office would return $6,600 (it did not institute review of the 41st through 52nd claims for which review was requested). Alternatively, if a review is not instituted at all, the Office would return $38,350 ($20,350 for claims over 15, as well as the base $18,000 post-institution fee).

The Office sets two different claim thresholds—one for petition (up to 20 claims) and the other for the post-institution trials (up to 15 claims)—because it anticipates that it will not institute a review of 25 percent of claims for which review is requested. The Office bases this approach on its analysis of the initial

inter partes

reexaminations filed after September 15, 2011, as well as the new opportunity for patent owners to file a response to the petition before the Office determines whether and for which claims to institute review.

The approach also considers certain policy factors, such as

fostering innovation

through facilitating greater access to the post-grant review proceedings and thereby removes low quality patents from the patent system.

Pre Grant Publication (PGPub) Fee:

Table 25—Pre Grant Publication (PGPub) Fee Changes

Fee description

Current fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Final fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Dollar change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Percent change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Publication Fee for Early, Voluntary, or Normal Publication

$300

$0

−$300

−100%

Publication Fee for Republication

300

300

0

0%

Table 26—Pre Grant Publication (PGPub) Historical Cost Information

Historical unit cost information

FY 2011

FY 2010

FY 2009

Publication Fee for Early, Voluntary, or Normal Publication

$181

$158

$243

With certain exceptions, each nonprovisional utility and plant patent application is published 18 months from the earliest effective filing date. The fee for this pre-grant publication (PGPub) is paid only after a patent is granted. If a patent is never granted, the applicant does not pay the fee for PGPub. Once the Office determines that the invention claimed in a patent application is patentable, the Office sends a notice of allowance to the applicant, outlining the patent application publication fees due, along with the patent issue fee. The applicant must pay these publication and issue fees three months from the date of the notice of allowance to avoid abandoning the application.

Currently, the PGPub fee is set at $300 and collects over one and a half times the cost to publish a patent application. The IP system benefits from publishing patent applications; disclosing information publicly stimulates research and development, as well as subsequent commercialization through further development or refinement of an invention. Therefore, a lower PGPub fee would benefit both applicants and innovators in the patent system.

Given that publishing a patent application 18 months after its earliest effective filing date benefits the IP system more than individual applicants, the Office reduces the PGPub fee to $0. Reducing this fee also helps rebalance the fee structure and offsets the proposed increases to filing, search, and examination fees ($340 increase, less this $300 decrease is a net $40 increase—or 3 percent—to apply for a patent and publish the application). However, to allow the Office to recover sufficient revenue to pay for the projected cost of patent operations in FY 2013, the effective date of the proposed reduction to the PGPub fee is January 1, 2014.

The PGPub fee for republication of a patent application (1.18(d)(2)) is not adjusted, but is set at the existing rate of $300. The Office keeps this fee at its existing rate for each patent application that must be published again after a first publication for $0.

(3) Fees To Be Set Above Cost Recovery

There are two fees that the Office sets above cost recovery that meet the greater than plus or minus 5 percent and 10 dollars criteria. The policy factor relevant to setting fees above cost recovery is

fostering innovation.

Back-end fees work in concert with front-end fees. The above-cost, back-end fees allow the Office to recover the revenue required to subsidize the cost of entry into the patent system and reduce the backlog of patent applications. A discussion of the rationale for each change follows.

Issue Fees:

Table 27—Issue Fee Changes

Fee description

Current fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Final fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Dollar change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Percent change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Utility Issue Fee

+$1,770

(+$885)

[N/A]

+$960

(+$480)

[+$240]

−$810

(−$405)

[−$645]

−46%

(−46%)

[−73%]

Table 28—Issue Fee Historical Cost Information

Historical unit cost information

FY 2011

FY 2010

FY 2009

Utility Issue Fee

$257

$231

$224

Once the Office determines that the invention claimed in a patent application is patentable, the USPTO sends a notice of allowance to the applicant outlining the patent application publication and patent issue fees due. The applicant must pay the publication and issue fees three months from the date of the notice of allowance to avoid abandoning the application.

In setting fees due after completing prosecution at a level higher than cost, front-end fees can be maintained below cost, thereby

fostering innovation.

Currently, the large entity issue fee is set at $1,770, which is seven times more than the cost of issuing a patent. This fee recovers revenue, but it also poses a challenge to applicants at the time of allowance. When the issue fee is due, patent owners possess less information about the value of their invention than they do a few years later. Lowering issue fees will help inventors financially at a time when the marketability of their invention is less certain. Additionally, setting the PGPub fee at $0 as discussed above, and recovering the combined cost of publishing and issuing an application through only the issue fee benefits small and micro entity innovators. The 50 percent discount for small entities and 75 percent discount for micro entities are not available for the publication fee, but are available for the issue fee. Thus, there are benefits to both the IP system and the applicant when the issue fees are set at an amount lower than the current fee amount, but still above cost recovery.

To both maintain the beneficial aspects of this back-end subsidy model and realign the balance of the fee structure, the Office decreases the large entity issue fee to $960. This amount is about twice the cost of both publishing an application (which is set below cost at $0) and issuing a patent. This fee adjustment is over a 50 percent decrease from the amount currently paid for both the PGPub and issue fees together. The Office is adjusting the issue fee in two steps. First, the Office sets the issue fee at $1,780 and makes available a 50 percent discount for small entities and a 75 percent discount for micro entities. Second, the Office decreases the large entity issue fee to $960 effective January 1, 2014, and continues to make available discounts for small and micro entities.

It should be noted that only utility issue fees are referenced in this section to simplify the discussion of the fee rationale. However, the rationale is applicable to the issue fee changes for design, plant, and reissue fees as outlined in the “

USPTO Section 10 Fee Setting—Table of Patent Fee Changes.

”

Maintenance Fees:

Table 29—Maintenance Fee Changes

Fee description

Current fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Final fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Dollar change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Percent change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Maintenance Fee Due at 3.5 Years (1st Stage)

$1,150

($575)

[N/A]

$1,600

($800)

[$400]

+$450

(+$225)

[$−175]

+39%

(+39%)

[−30%]

Maintenance Fee Due at 7.5 Years (2nd Stage)

$2,900

($1,450)

[N/A]

$3,600

($1,800)

[$900]

+$700

(+$350)

[−$550]

+24%

(+24%)

[−38%]

Maintenance Fee Due at 11.5 Years (3rd Stage)

$4,810

($2,405)

[N/A]

$7,400

($3,700)

[$1,850]

+$2,590

(+$1,295)

[−$555]

+54%

(+54%)

[−23%]

Table 30—Maintenance Fee Historical Cost Information

Historical unit cost information

FY 2011 *

FY 2010

FY 2009

Maintenance Fee Due at 3.5 Years (1st Stage)

$1

$2

Maintenance Fee Due at 7.5 Years (2nd Stage)

1

2

Maintenance Fee Due at 11.5 Years (3rd Stage)

1

2

* Beginning in FY 2011, the Office determined that the maintenance fee activity was in support of the process application fees activity and its associated fees. Therefore, the Office reassigned these costs accordingly, and no longer estimates a unit cost for maintenance fee activities. Additional information about the methodology for determining the cost of performing the Office's activities, including the cost components related to respective fees, available at

http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/fees.jsp#heading-1

in the document titled

“USPTO Section 10 Fee Setting—Activity-Based Information and Costing Methodology.”

Maintenance fees must be paid at defined intervals—3.5 years, 7.5 years, and 11.5 years—after the Office grants a utility patent in order to keep the patent in force. Maintaining a patent costs the Office very little. However, maintenance fees benefit the Office and the patent system by generating revenue that permits the Office to keep front-end fees below cost and to subsidize the cost of prosecution for small and micro entity innovators.

Additionally, maintenance fees will be paid only by patent owners who believe the value of their patent is higher than the fees for renewing their patent rights. On this score, setting early maintenance fees lower than later maintenance fees mitigates uncertainty associated with the value of the patent. As the value becomes more certain over time, the maintenance fee increases because patent owners have more information about the commercial value of the patented invention and can more readily decide whether the benefit of a patent outweighs the cost of the fee.

Therefore, under a progressively higher maintenance fee schedule, a patent holder is positioned to perform an individual cost-benefit analysis to determine if the patent is at least as valuable as the maintenance fee payment. When the patent holder determines that the patent benefit (value) outweighs the cost (maintenance fee), the holder will likely continue to maintain the patent. Conversely, when the patent holder determines that the benefit is less than the cost, the holder likely will not maintain the patent to full term. When the patent expires, the subject matter of the patent is no longer held with exclusive patent rights, and the public may utilize the invention and work to extend its innovation or commercialization. More information on the economic costs and benefits of patent renewal can be found in the rulemaking RIA, which is available for review at

http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/fees.jsp.

The Office increases the first, second, and third stage maintenance fees to $1,600, $3,600, and $7,400, respectively. These increases are commensurate with the subsidies offered for prosecution of a patent application and align with the fee setting strategy of

fostering innovation

by setting front-end fees below cost. The increase also ensures that the USPTO has sufficient aggregate revenue to recover the aggregate cost of operations and implement goals and objectives.

(4) Fees That Are Not Set Using Cost Data as an Indicator

Fees in this category include those fees for which the USPTO does not typically maintain historical cost information separate from that included in the average overall cost of activities during patent prosecution or did not refer to cost information for setting the particular fee. Instead, the Office evaluates the policy factors described in

Part III. Rulemaking Goals and Strategies,

above, to inform fee setting. Some of these fees are based on the size and complexity of an application and help the Office to

effectively administer the patent system

by encouraging applicants to engage in certain activities. Setting fees at particular levels can: (1) Encourage the submission of applications or other actions which lead to more efficient processing where examiners can provide, and applicants can receive, prompt, quality interim and final decisions; (2) encourage the prompt conclusion of prosecuting an application, resulting in pendency reduction and the faster dissemination of patented information; and (3) help recover costs for activities that strain the patent system.

There are six types of fees in this category. A discussion of the rationale for each proposed change follows.

Extension of Time Fees:

Table 31—Extension of Time Fee Changes

Fee description

Current fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Final fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Dollar change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Percent change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Extension for Response within 1st Month

$150

($75)

[N/A]

$200

($100)

[$50]

+$50

(+$25)

[−$25]

+33%

(+33%)

[−33%]

Extension for Response within 2nd Month

$570

($285)

[N/A]

$600

($300)

[$150]

+$30

(+$15)

[−$135]

+5%

(+5%)

[−47%]

Extension for Response within 3rd Month

$1,290

($645)

[N/A]

$1,400

($700)

[$350]

+$110

(+$55)

[−$295]

+9%

(+9%)

[−46%]

Extension for Response within 4th Month

$2,010

($1,005)

[N/A]

$2,200

($1,100)

[$550]

+$190

(+$95)

[−$455]

+9%

(+9%)

[−45%]

Extension for Response within 5th Month

$2,730

($1,365)

[N/A]

$3,000

($1,500)

[$750]

+$270

(+$135)

[−$615]

+10%

(+10%)

[−45%]

If an applicant must reply within a non-statutory or shortened statutory time period, the applicant can extend the reply time period by filing a petition for an extension of time and paying the requisite fee. Extensions of time may be automatically authorized at the time an application is filed or requested as needed during prosecution. The USPTO increases these fees to facilitate an efficient and prompt conclusion of application processing, which benefits the Office's compact prosecution initiatives and reduces patent application pendency.

Application Size Fees:

Table 32—Application Size Fee Changes

Fee description

Current fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Final fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Dollar change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Percent change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Application Size Fee—For each Additional 50 Sheets that Exceed 100 Sheets

$320

($160)

[N/A]

$400

($200)

[$100]

+$80

(+$40)

[−$60]

+25%

(+25%)

[−38%]

Currently, the Office charges an additional fee for any application where the specification and drawings together exceed 100 sheets of paper. The application size fee applies for each additional 50 sheets of paper or fraction thereof. The USPTO increases the application size fee to facilitate an efficient and compact application examination process, which benefits the applicant and the

effective administration of patent prosecution.

Succinct applications facilitate faster examination with an expectation of fewer errors.

Excess Claims:

Table 33—Excess Claims Fee Changes

Fee description

Current fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Final fees

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Dollar change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Percent change

Large

(small)

[micro]

entity

Independent Claims in Excess of 3

$250

($125)

[N/A]

$420

($210)

[$105]

+$170

(+$85)

[−$20]

+68%

(+68%)

[−16%]

Claims in Excess of 20

$62

($31)

[N/A]

$80

($40)

[$20]

+$18

(+$9)

[−$11]

+29%

(+29%)

[−35%]

Multiple Dependent Claim

$460

($230)

[N/A]

$780

($390)

[$195]

+$320

(+$160)

[−$35]

+70%

(+70%)

[−15%]

Currently, the Office charges a fee for filing, or later presenting at any other time, each independent claim in excess of 3, as well as each claim (whether dependent or independent) in excess of 20. In addition, any original application that is filed with, or amended to include, multiple dependent claims must pay the multiple dependent claim fee. Generally, a multiple dependent claim is a dependent claim which refers back in the alternative to more than one preceding independent or dependent claim.

The patent fee structure has maintained excess claim fees since at least 1982, and the result has been that most applications now contain three or fewer independent claims and twenty or fewer total claims. Applicants who feel they need more than this number of independent or total claims may continue to present them by paying the applicable excess claims fee. While the former excess claims fee amount encouraged most applicants to present three or fewer independent claims and twenty or fewer total claims, it was not sufficient to discou

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