The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) finalized its fee schedule for 2025, which will take effect on January 19, 2025. This schedule includes significant increases to fees for design patent applications. Stakeholders should consider these changes and plan accordingly for before and after the fees go into effect to minimize the impact these increased costs will have on budgets in the coming year.

The two significant fee increases that are specific to Design Patents are related to the filing fees and the issue fees as shown in Table 1 below. As shown, there is a 27 percent increase in the filing fees for an application and there is a 76 percent increase in issue fees for a Design Patent.

To minimize the impact these fee increases will have on budgets, stakeholders should try to file any impending applications by January 18, 2025. In addition, if a stakeholder has any applications that are currently allowed, there will be a 76 percent savings if the payment of the issue fee is advanced to January 18, 2025. It is important to remember that paying the issue fees may move up the timeline to file a continuing application to meet the co-pendency requirement. However, an additional savings can also be made if the continuing application is filed on or before January 18, 2025.

Click here to read Womble Bond Dickinson’s Nov. 22 client alert on “U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Sets 2025 Fee Schedule”.

References

Federal Register- Setting and Adjusting Patent Fees Fiscal Year 2025