News & Articles

8 September 2020

IP Australia have announced changes to a number of Patent, Design and Trade Mark Official Fees, effective from 1 October 2020.

Notable changes include:

PATENTS

– Renewal/Maintenance Fees – a new progressively increasing fee structure is being implemented (changing from a step-wise structure), with quite significant increases to the later year fees.

Note that multiple fees may be paid as a lump sum before 1 October 2020 to avoid the increases.

– Acceptance Fees for excess claims – whilst the threshold for paying excess claims fees at acceptance/allowance remains at 20 claims, the new official fee is AU$125 per claim for each claim over 20 claims, and AU$250 per claim for each claim over 30 claims.

Note that the number of claims may be reduced during examination to avoid/minimise paying excess claims fees.

TRADEMARKS

– Filing Fees – Trade Mark Application Fees are increasing – e.g. the new filing fee for a standard (non-picklist) application is AU$400 per class.

DESIGNS

– Filing Fees – for applications with multiple designs, there is a new fee of AU$200 per design.

– Renewal/Maintenance Fees – the new design renewal fee is AU$400.

HALFORDS IP (HIP) have not changed our service charges, but we have updated our Scale of Charges to reflect the IP Australia Official Fee changes.

Please contact us for further details.