Japanese Patent Office made an announcement in January 2019 that the official fees for filing the Request for Examination will be changed, as described in the following Table. Please note that the change in the official fees is applicable for Japanese patent applications filed on and after April 1, 2019.
|
For patent applications filed before March 31, 2019 |
For patent applications filed on or after April 1, 2019 |
|
(1) JPY 118,000 + (JPY 4,000 x number of claims) |
(1) JPY 138,000 + (JPY 4,000 x number of claims) |
|
(2) JPY 106,000 + (JPY 3,600 x number of claims) |
(2) JPY 124,000 + (JPY 3,600 x number of claims) |
Notes:
(1) non-PCT applications
(2) PCT applications accompanied with International Search Report that was not prepared by Japanese Patent Office
For example, in a case where a PCT application has 10 claims, an official fee for requesting an examination of this Japanese application will increase from JPY 142,000 to JPY 160,000.
For "small entities" who reside outside Japan and will file Request for Examination on or after April 1, 2019, reductions will be applied to official fees for filing the Request for Examination. (Although reductions have been applied to official fees for filing Request for Examination in the past, troublesome documents were required to be filed; and these reductions were not advantageously practiced by eligible "small entities".)
Furthermore, reductions will be applied to official fees for the 1st to 10th patent annuities whose applicants are "small entities" (as simpler documents for paying the annuities are filed), provided that Request for Examination will be filed on or after April 1, 2019.
These revisions will be attractive to the "small entities", such as universities and manufacturers capitalized at less than JPY 300 million and employing less than 300 people, because such applicants will enjoy a 50% reduction.
