View Rule

View EO 12866 Meetings Printer-Friendly Version     Download RIN Data in XML

DOC/PTO RIN: 0651-AD64 Publication ID: Fall 2024 
Title: Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees During Fiscal Year 2025 
Abstract:

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) takes this action to set and adjust Patent fee amounts to provide the Office with sufficient aggregate revenue to recover its aggregate cost of operations thereby maintaining a sustainable funding model. The new fee amounts will provide the Office with additional resources to decrease patent pendency and ensure robust and reliable patents are allowed while continuing to promote access to the patent system for underresourced individuals. This rule reflects feedback the Office has received throughout the rulemaking process. Initial feedback from members of the Patent Public Advisory Committee and the public, including organizations, practitioners, and independent inventors, was gathered during a public hearing held on May 18, 2023, and the subsequent public comment period following the hearing. The USPTO published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on April 3, 2024.The NPRM included a 60-day comment period that closed on June 3, 2024, and is preparing a final rule that incorporates the feedback received on the NPRM.

 

 
Agency: Department of Commerce(DOC)  Priority: Section 3(f)(1) Significant 
RIN Status: Previously published in the Unified Agenda Agenda Stage of Rulemaking: Final Rule Stage 
Major: Yes  Unfunded Mandates: No 
CFR Citation: 37 CFR 1    37 CFR 41    37 CFR 42   
Legal Authority: Pub. L. 112-29   
Legal Deadline:  None

Statement of Need:

The purpose of this rule is to set and adjust patent fee amounts to provide sufficient aggregate revenue to cover the agency's aggregate cost of operations. To this end, this rule creates new or changes existing fees for patent services, and does so without imposing any new costs.

Summary of the Legal Basis:

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), enacted in 2011, provided USPTO with the authority to set and adjust its fees for patent and trademark services. This authority was extended an additional 8 years by the Study of Underrepresented Classes Chasing Engineering and Science Success (SUCCESS) Act of 2018. The USPTO has conducted an internal biennial fee review, in which it undertook internal consideration of the current fee structure, and considered ways that the structure might be improved, including rulemaking pursuant to the USPTO's fee setting authority. This fee review process involves public outreach, including, as required by the Act, a public hearing held by the USPTO's Patent Public Advisory Committee, as well as public comment and other outreach to the user community and public in general.

Alternatives:

The alternatives are: 1) the final patent fee schedule to set and adjust patent fees, 2) setting fees at unit cost recovery, 3) a 12.5 percent across the board adjustment that would set fees by applying a one-time inflationary increase to all fees, and 4) the current fee schedule (no adjustments).

Anticipated Costs and Benefits:

The proposed alternative has qualitative benefits of improved fee schedule design and securing aggregate revenue to recover aggregate cost that outweigh the minimal fee schedule design cost. The user fees charged by the USPTO for its services are considered transfer payments that do not affect the total resources available to society, and therefore the changes to patent fees proposed by this rulemaking are transfers, and are not costs of this rulemaking.

Risks:

The USPTO will set and adjust patent fee amounts to provide the Office with a sufficient amount of aggregate revenue to recover the aggregate cost of patent operations in future years and operate within a sustainable funding model that supports the USPTO’s strategic goals and objectives. Therefore, one risk of taking no action could be that USPTO might not be able to recover its aggregate costs of operations in the long run.

Timetable:
Action Date FR Cite
NPRM  04/03/2024  89 FR 23226   
NPRM Comment Period End  06/03/2024 
Final Action  12/00/2024 
Final Action Effective  02/00/2025 
Regulatory Flexibility Analysis Required: YES  Government Levels Affected: None 
Small Entities Affected: Businesses, Organizations  Federalism: No 
Included in the Regulatory Plan: Yes 
RIN Data Printed in the FR: Yes 
Agency Contact:
Brendan Hourigan
Director, Office of Planning and Budget
Department of Commerce
Patent and Trademark Office
P.O. Box 1450,
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450
Phone:571 272-8966
Fax:571 273-8966
Email: brendan.hourigan@uspto.gov