European Patent Office Fee Increases

The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced its biennial fee increases.  These take effect from 1 April 2020. Details can be found here.

As in the past, the majority of the increases are explained to be inflationary with an average increase of 4-5%. An notable exception is the appeal fee, which will be increasing by nearly 20%.

There are two levels of appeal fee. A reduced appeal fee is payable for appellants that are either (a) a natural person, or (b) a small- or medium-sized enterprise, a non-profit organisation, a university or a public research organisation (see here for further details on these categories). The reduced appeal fee is increasing from 1,800 EUR to 1,955 EUR. For all other appellants, the appeal fee is increasing from 2,255 EUR to 2,705 EUR.