Amendments Of The Filing And Examination Fees Before The Epo.

Article 6 of the Implementing Regulations and Article 14 (1) of the Rules Relating to Fees have been amended thus introducing a new system of tax reduction. This system is being designed to support selected applicants whose residence or place of business is in a Contracting State of the European Patent Convention (EPC), filing patents or requests for examination in an official language of that State, which differs from English, French or German. This reduction will only apply to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), individuals, non-profit organizations, universities and public research organizations. The previous reduction of 20% of the application fee and the examination fee is increased to 30% as of April 1, 2014.