Renewal fees for patents

October 22, 2008
Intellectual Property News and Interesting Facts

No maintenance fees are payable on pending applications. Renewal fees become payable once the patent is granted. Nevertheless, the Registrar will accept renewal fees before the due date, and even while the application is pending. The general rule is that the first renewal fee falls due on the first anniversary of the filing date, and subsequent renewal fees are payable annually thereafter. For patents granted on non-PCT applications, if the date of grant of the patent is after the third anniversary of the ZA filing date, then the first renewal fee falls due on the date of grant. For patents granted on PCT national phase applications, the third anniversary is counted from the filing date of the PCT international application, and if the date of grant is less than three months before the third anniversary, then the first renewal fee falls due six months from the date of grant of the patent.