The US Patent and Trademark Office USPTO now offers a $400.00 incentive to small entities for filing a Utility Patent Application. The new rule became effective on November 15, 2011, as a result of the passage of the American Invents Act (AIA). See Federal Register Notice
The new rule adds a charge of $400.00 to Utility Patent Applications that are not filed electronically. The fee change does not apply to Design Patent Applications, Provisional Patent Applications or Plant Patent Applications.
The rule applies to small entities which are defined as businesses of 500 or fewer employees and which have are not obligated to assign patent applications to large entities.
This final rule revises 37 CFR 1.16 and 1.445 of the Federal Patent Rules to include the fee for applications not filed electronically.
The USPTO encourages applicants to file their applications via its electronic filing system (EFS-Web) to avoid the fee provided for by section 10(h) of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act.
Information concerning electronic filing via the EFS-Web is available to the public from the USPTO’s Patent Electronic Business Center (EBC) here.
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