Fee Discounts Based on Establishment of Small or Micro Entity Status

Most patent applicants pay regular undiscounted patent fees. However, fees for filing, searching, examining, issuing, appealing, and maintaining patent applications and patents are reduced by 50 percent for any small entity that qualifies for reduced fees under 37 CFR § 1.27(a), and are reduced by 75 percent for any micro entity that files a certification that the requirements under 37 CFR § 1.29(a) or (d) are met.

• Small Entity Status: Applicant must determine that small entity status under 37 CFR § 1.27(a) is appropriate before making an assertion of entitlement to small entity status and paying a fee at the 50 percent small entity discount. Small entity status may be appropriate if the inventors have not assigned any rights in the invention set forth in the application and are not under any obligation to do so (as may be required in an employment contract). Note that by filing electronically, the filing fee for an applicant qualifying for small entity status is further reduced. If you qualify as a small entity for patent fee purposes, no special form is required to claim your entitlement to reduced fees (you may check a special box on the transmittal form), but you should only pay small entity rates after ensuring that you qualify for the small entity status.
• Micro Entity Status: Applicant must determine that micro entity status under 37 CFR § 1.29(a) or (d) is appropriate before filing the required certification of micro entity status and paying a fee at the 75 percent micro entity discount. The patent forms Web page is indexed under the Forms, Patents section on the USPTO website. There are two USPTO micro entity certification forms, namely form PTO/SB/15A for certifying micro entity status on the “gross income basis” under 37 CFR § 1.29(a), and form PTO/SB/15B for certifying micro entity status on the “institution of higher education basis” under 37 CFR § 1.29(d). Because the certifications that must be made in order to be considered a micro entity are rather detailed, it is strongly recommended that the appropriate USPTO micro entity certification form be used to certify qualification for micro entity status.

Effective November 15, 2011, any regular nonprovisional utility application filed by mail or hand-delivery will require payment of an additional $400 fee called the “non-electronic filing fee,” which is reduced by 50 percent (to $200) for applicants that qualify for small entity status under 37 CFR § 1.27(a) or micro entity status under 37 CFR § 1.29(a) or (d). The only way to avoid having to pay the additional $400 non-electronic filing fee is by filing the regular nonprovisional utility application via Patent Center or EFS-Web.