Europe
PATENT ANNUITIES COUNTRY GUIDE
About this Guide
This series of Spotlight Articles developed by the Astria team, shares insights into patent annuity country rules and formalities, based on key Patent Offices (PTO) jurisdictions Worldwide. Astria’s software-enabled payments service combines; leading intuitive software, IP data integrity and outstanding paralegal services, within one solution.
This article highlights Europe, a key market for many of Wellspring’s clients.
Europe Patent Overview
At the EPO, the first renewal payment is due on the 3rd year of filing and annually after this payment. The renewals for European Patent (EP) applications are then due on the last day of the month upon the anniversary of when the filing date falls.
Once granted, and the EP validation process is selected, European patents require annuity payments in each respective country where the validation process has been completed. It is important that clients notify Astria by adding individual cases to the Astria system for each of the validated countries, for all granted European patents. Failure to do so can result in the annuities being missed and the European patent may lapse in the validated countries.
Once this process has been completed, Astria checks these data points to accurately calculate and display the renewal year and deadline date.
Europe
Patent Office
Renewal Process
Patent Applications
The EPO had 193,610 Patent applications in 2022 – an increase of 2.6% Further, in 2019 the EPO had a total of 1,376 PPH (patent prosecution highway) requests by Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) of first filing and offices of later examination in 2019. The highest office was the U.S with 650 PPH requests being made to the EPO.
Benefits of PPH is to fast-track the examination process by examiners utilising work done by other offices.
Source: WIPO Statistics Database, September 2023
Patent Renewal Rules
As mentioned, the first renewals in Europe are payable from the 3rd year of filing and annually afterwards, the renewals are then due on the last day of the month upon the anniversary of the filing date. Therefore, if an application has the filing date of 17/06/2024, the 3rd renewal fee would be due on 30/06/2026.
The flat-rate, official late fee increases are displayed to Astria clients in the portal to aid the decision on when to pay a European renewal.
Astria displays the routine renewal payment deadline for European renewals. Organizations do have the option through Astria to pause payment, as it is still possible to pay the European renewal during the grace period. The grace period at the EPO lasts for up to 6 months with late fees applied by the PTO in Europe (referred to as the EPO).
Effortless IP Renewals with Astria
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