USPTO Patent Fees: Changes for 2025

Effective January 19, 2025, patent applicants and patent owners will see significant changes in United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) patent fees, where the last review of fees occurred in fiscal year 2021. The USPTO published its final rulemaking on patent fees on November 20, 2024.

This final rule sets or adjusts 433 patent fees for undiscounted, small, and micro entities, including the introduction of 52 new fees. Any reference to ‘‘undiscounted entity’’ includes all entities other than those with established entitlement to either a small or micro entity fee discount. The most significant changes are highlighted below, including several that apply fees in new ways and should therefore be considered carefully by practitioners moving forward.

Continuing applications with benefit claim under 37 C.F.R. § 1.78(d)

The USPTO is instituting a new fee (37 C.F.R. § 1.17(w)(1))for filing a continuing application presenting a benefit claim under 35 U.S.C. § 120, 121, 365(c) or 386(c) to an earlier application(s) filed more than 6 years and no more than 9 years prior to the continuing application’s actual filing date, and a larger fee (37 C.F.R. § 1.17(w)(2)) for a benefit claim to an earlier application(s) more than 9 years prior to the continuing application. A claim to an earlier-filed application under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a)-(d) (foreign priority application) or 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) (provisional application) will not trigger a fee under 37 C.F.R. § 1.17(w).

At the moment, it appears that the USPTO will likely NOT capture a benefit claim where the fee is due and not paid. That is, should an application be filed with a benefit claim present on an Application Data Sheet where the earliest benefit date is more than 6 years before the actual filing date without the fee under 37 C.F.R. § 1.17(w)(1) or more than 9 years without the fee under 37 C.F.R. § 1.17(w)(2), the USPTO will likely not capture the benefit claim on a filing receipt and will likely issue a notice indicating that since the fee due under 37 C.F.R. § 1.17(w) was not paid, the benefit claim is not captured. For a proper benefit claim to be captured by the USPTO, the reference to the prior-filed application must be submitted within the later of four months from the actual filing date of the later-filed application or 16 months from the filing date of the prior-filed application, and if the fee is due, it must be paid (see 37 C.F.R. § 1.78(d)(3)(ii)). This time frame for submission of a proper benefit claim is independent of any time period set forth in a pre-examination notice for submitting deficiencies.

Information Disclosure Statements under 37 C.F.R. §§ 1.97 and 1.98

The USPTO has set a new fee for any Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) filed on or after January 19, 2025, based on the cumulative number of items of information provided by an applicant or patent owner during the pendency of the application or reexamination proceeding. Items of information in excess of 50 will incur a first fee; a second fee is due for a cumulative number of items of information in excess of 100 but not exceeding 200, less any amount previously paid; and a third fee is due for a cumulative number of items of information in excess of 200. There is no discount for small or micro entities for this fee. For any IDS filed on or after January 19, 2025, an affirmative statement must also accompany the IDS that indicates whether and which fee is due. Without an affirmative statement as to whether or not an IDS size fee is due, the USPTO will likely not consider the IDS and will likely issue a notice indicating that the IDS is non-compliant. A general authorization to charge fees to a deposit account is not a compliant statement, unless the authorization clearly identifies whether and which fee is due as applicable to a specific IDS.

Excess Claims

The USPTO is increasing fees for presenting claims that exceed the statutory limit of 3 independent and 20 total claims. Since fees associated with filing, searching, examining, issuing, appealing, and maintaining patent applications and patents are subject to the small and micro entity discounts, there are tiered discounted fees for such entities to present these additional claims.

Extensions of Time for Provisional Applications

Since provisional applications are not examined, there is no urgency to expedite processing. Reducing the fees for extensions of time to reply to a nonstatutory or shortened statutory period will afford applicants who are still determining whether to move forward with a nonprovisional application with more financial resources, instead of using such limited resources of extension-of-time fees.

Patent Term Extension Applications

The USPTO is increasing the fees for patentees seeking to extend patent term under 35 U.S.C. § 156 for regulatory delay. The USPTO is also implementing a new fee for requesting a supplemental redetermination of the amount of term to be granted in light of a terminal disclaimer filed after a Notice of Final Determination has been mailed by the agency to an applicant for patent term extension.

Request for Continued Examination

The USPTO is increasing fees for a first RCE by 10% and increasing fees for second and subsequent RCEs by 43%.

Suspension of Action

The USPTO is removing fees for suspensions of action under 37 C.F.R. § 1.103(a) from the broad category described in 37 C.F.R. § 1.17(g) and creating a tiered system where the fee is now split into a first suspension of action (§ 1.17(g)(1)) and a second/subsequent suspension of action (§ 1.17(g)(2)).

Unintentional Delay Petitions

The USPTO is increasing the fee for petitions based on unintentional delay and creating a higher tier for petitions covering unintentional delays of more than two years. Discounts for small and micro entities are available.

AIA Trials

The USPTO is increasing AIA trial fees by 25%. The USPTO is also instituting a new fee for a request for review of PTAB trial decision by the Director. This Director review is only for AIA trial decisions, not for ex parte appeal decisions.

Patent Term Adjustment Applications

While the USPTO proposed an increase up to $300 in the fee for filing patent term adjustment applications, the agency eventually decided to apply an across-the-board increase of 8% based on comments.

Terminal Disclaimers

In the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the USPTO proposed a tiered system of fees for terminal disclaimers with a significant fee to be paid if a terminal disclaimer was filed in a granted patent. After considering comments, the USPTO instituted an 8% fee increase, resulting in a terminal disclaimer fee of $183.

Design Applications

All fees for design applications have been increased.

Filing, Search and Examination

The USPTO is increasing filing, search, and examination fees by an additional 2.5% on top of the 7.5% across-the-board proposal (10% in total). These fees are subject to discounts for small and micro entities.

Across-the-Board Adjustments

Where the USPTO did not finalize targeted fees, the agency has increased patents and PTAB fees by about 7.5%, which is more than the proposed 5%. 
The agency is planning to issue guidance on how the new fees will apply in certain situations. Additionally, the agency is planning to update the Information Disclosure Statement forms to include the required certification statements, but it is likely that such updated forms will not be released much in advance of the effective date of the final rule, January 19, 2025.