On November 22, 2011, the Israel Patent Office announced that following the announcement made by WIPO and in accordance with the PCT Treaty, from January 1, 2012, there will be changes in fee scales.
The announcement means that inventors and anyone requesting patent will benefit from lower fees and thus reduced costs for the request for patent process.
The international filing fee will drop from $1,758 to $1,453 and the supplementary fee for each page over 30 pages will drop from $20 to $16. In addition, the search fee at the European Patent Office will be reduced from $2,443 to $2,370 and the handling fee for a preliminary international examination by the American Search Office, shall be reduced from $264 to $219. The handling fee for a preliminary international examination by the European Search Office shall be reduced from €177 to €165. All the changes are subject to the full announcements from the Patents Authority and WIPO announcements as mentioned and the various announcements from patent authorities on this matter must be monitored.
There are advantages in making PCT international requests, because PCT is an umbrella organization for a large number of countries. In accordance with some of the provisions to the treaty, an inventor making a request for patent can request the original priority date for that invention when requests for patent are filed in additional countries.
Preferably, inventors should consult patent attorneys on this matter. A patent attorney will be able to advise on how to act and on the correct and most appropriate strategy to employ in order to ensure both short term and long term benefits.