On June 21, 2023, amendments to the patent, trademark, and industrial design regulations were published in the Canada Gazette. The amendments increase most Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) fees by 25% over the original 2024 fee amounts, and are set to come into force on January 1, 2024. This represents the first comprehensive fee increase since 2004.
The Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement indicates that the fee increase is intended to address CIPO’s “current structural deficit situation and return the organization to a position of financial stability.”
For patents, there are some exceptions to the 25% increase, including small entity fees, some low materiality fees, and some fees included in the Rules Amending the Patent Rules that came into force on October 3, 2022. For example, excess claims fees will not have a 25% increase. While there will be no fee increase for small entities, CIPO is expanding the definition of a “small entity” from 50 employees or less to fewer than 100 employees. For the complete list of 2024 patent fees, please see CIPO’s website here.
For CIPO’s 2024 trademark fees, please see here; the 2024 industrial design fees can be found here.
In some cases, IP owners may want to pay future fees now to take advantage of the lower 2023 rates.
Summary By: Michelle Noonan
E-TIPS® ISSUE
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