More than €1 million — first results of reduced fees for micro-enterprises

In order to promote the long-term sustainability of the EPO, a budget-neutral fee policy reform has been implemented, which includes targeted fee discounts to improve access to the patent system for underrepresented micro-entities through moderate fee adjustments.

The revised fee structure, effective from 1 April 2024, offers micro-enterprises, natural persons, non-profit organizations, universities, and public research organizations a 30% reduction on all main fees in the patent granting process. To date, eligible micro-entities have saved more than €1 million through this scheme, benefiting over 1,900 applications and resulting in over 4,000 reduced fees. Over 70% of all requests come from users based in EPC Member States, with the top ten countries being Italy, Germany, UK, France, Switzerland, Spain, Finland, Poland, Sweden, and Austria. The overall percentage of beneficiaries among applicants remains at 2%.

Through targeted fee discounts, the EPO assists underrepresented key players in the innovation ecosystem in safeguarding their most valuable inventions at a lower cost, which have resulted from significant investments of time and effort over many years. These fee discounts are just one part of complementary measures aimed at improving the accessibility of the patent system. These measures include established language-related fee discounts as well as the Deep Tech Finder — a free digital tool designed to help investors identify and evaluate European startups that are bringing inventions to market in critical technology areas.

The fee reduction for micro-entities is applicable to new and pending applications, as long as the micro-entity has not filed five or more previous applications within the past five years. It can be combined with other fee reductions, especially language-related fee reductions.