Unitary Patent Protection - Renewal fees

The Select Committee held its 13th meeting in Munich on 23 and 24 March 2015.

The Committee discussed two alternative proposals on the level of renewal fees submitted by the European Patent Office. These proposals foresee fee levels of respectively the equivalent of the renewal fees which have to be paid for the four or five countries out of the twenty-five EU participating member states in which most European patents are currently validated (TOP 4 and TOP 5). The TOP 5 proposal in addition foresees a 25% fee reduction for the first ten years of the lifetime of the patent for specific entities such as SMEs, universities and public research institutions. Member States held a first exchange of views with most Member States not yet able to take a concrete position on these proposals.

The Committee also continued exchanging views on the distribution key for the repartition of the share of renewal fees between the EU participating member states. Member States exchanged views on the way the different criteria which compose the distribution key, should be defined and weighted.

The Committee exchanged views on the level of the compensation scheme for the reimbursement of translation costs of European patent applications filed in an EU official language other than an EPO official language.

Lastly, the Committee once more confirmed its commitment to take, by the end of June 2015, the appropriate decisions on the financial and budgetary aspects of the implementation of the Unitary Patent Protection.