Reducing European Patent Costs: Using The EPO Fee Assistant To Explore Fee Reductions
Introduction: What Are Patent Official Fees?
Applying for a patent is a significant financial investment. Official fees (the fees paid to patent offices) make up part of the total cost.
Some patent offices offer official fee reductions to certain applicants. For example, the European Patent Office (EPO) offers several fee reductions in different circumstances.
To help users of the European patent system explore some of the available fee reductions and support, the EPO provides an EPO Fee Assistant tool.
This article explains how the EPO Fee Assistant works.
Russell IP can provide tailored advice to confirm whether you qualify for any of these reductions.
Why Official Fees Matter For Overall Patent Costs
Patent costs typically include:
- Patent attorney charges: costs for a patent attorney to draft a patent application, file a patent application at a patent office, review and respond to objections from patent offices, and similar tasks.
- Official fees: fees charged by a patent office for processing a patent application or maintaining a patent, for example.
Official fees vary between patent offices but can be significant, especially for a smaller company with a limited patenting budget. Fee reductions can therefore be particularly valuable to SMEs and individuals. They may even make the difference between filing a patent application and not filing one where the saving is large. Not all patent offices offer fee reductions, so it’s important to know when and where they apply.
Introducing The EPO Fee Assistant Tool
To help users understand the different official fee reductions for European patent applications, the EPO has introduced the EPO Fee Assistant tool. As explained on the Fee Assistant page, the tool is intended to:
“[help] applicants quickly understand the costs involved in a European patent application including opportunities for fee reductions. It has been designed particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), startups, universities, public research organisations, non-profits, individual inventors and natural persons.”
The tool is structured in a questionnaire format. It then presents a table summarising which fee reductions may apply based on the answers provided, with links to detailed guidance.
EPO Micro-Entity Fee Reductions – Substantial Savings For Smaller Companies And Specific Types of Applicant
Micro-entity fee reductions are available for smaller companies and specific types of applicant. An applicant qualifies if:
- They are:
- A university, public research organisation or non-profit;
- An individual inventor; or
- A microenterprises with fewer than 10 employees and annual turnover or balance sheet below €2 million
AND
- They have not filed more than four patent applications in the past five years.
Micro-entity fee reductions can apply to the following fees:
- Filing fee: fee to apply for a patent;
- Search fee: fee for patent office to search for similar inventions;
- Examination fee: fee for patent office to examine whether patent application meets requirements for a patent to be granted;
- Designation fee: fee for patent application to cover (“designate”) multiple countries;
- Grant fee: fee for patent office to grant a patent; and
- Renewal fee: fee to keep patent application pending.
Reductions applied to all the above fees can lead to significant savings in official fees over a patent application’s lifetime. Reductions to the filing, search and examination fees alone can save more than €1500 for some applicants.
The EPO can request evidence of an applicant’s eligibility, to prevent misuse of the scheme. This can lead to additional work to collect and present the relevant evidence. In practice, the savings typically outweigh any additional patent attorney charges for preparing the evidence.
Other EPO Fee Reductions And Compensation Schemes
The EPO also offers other types of fee reduction and compensation schemes, including:
- Reductions of filing and examination fees when a European patent application or a request for examination is in an official language, other than English, French or German, of a contracting state to the European Patent Convention (EPC);
- Compensation for Unitary Patent translation costs; and
- Reduced appeal fees.
Each of these reductions and compensation schemes has its own eligibility criteria. More detail about these can be found on the EPO’s website.
What The EPO Fee Support Scheme Insights Tell Us
The EPO’s “Fee support scheme insights” page provides data about the benefit the different fee reductions and compensation schemes provide to eligible applicants. The charts indicate that millions of euros in total are saved each year by organisations using the EPO’s fee support options. This highlights the value of taking advantage of the support available. These insights also give a sense of how widely the schemes are used.
The analysis below is based on numbers shown on the EPO Fee Assistant Tool in February 2026.
The charts break down the amounts saved by scheme and by year. The total annual amount of support provided across all schemes has increased significantly over the last decade – from approximately €1 million in 2015 to approximately €14 million in 2025.
The charts also provide information about:
- How many valid requests for micro-entity fee status have been filed (11,948, or approximately 95% of all requests);
- Which routes are used for European patent applications claiming micro-entity support (60% are international applications entering the European regional phase, and 40% are direct European patent applications, in line with broader application filing trends).
- How much financial support is provided for each of the applicable fees (support with examination fees, search fees and renewal fees makes up more than 75% of the total support provided).
- Which countries requests for micro-entity support come from. Interestingly, among applicants in EPC contracting states, Italian applicants appear to have filed the most requests for micro-entity support (1289), even though Italy ranks 7th among EPC contracting states for number of EP applications filed. This may be because the EPO searches Italian national patent applications on behalf of the Italian Patent and Trademark Office, with significant fee reductions available for such national searches).
- What technology areas applications claiming micro-entity support relate to. “Medical technology” is top of the list, with more than twice as many requests as the next-highest technology area, “Other special machines”. In 2024, these were only the fourth- and ninth-highest technology areas by numbers of EP applications, with “Computer technology”, “Electrical machinery” and “Digital communication” taking the top three spots. It may be that applicants for computer technology patents file more applications and so aren’t eligible for fee reductions.
How Russell IP Helps Clients Make The Most Of Fee Reductions
Russell IP proactively looks for ways to help clients reduce official fees where this does not compromise patent quality. We regularly make use of the EPO’s and other patent offices’ fee reductions for qualifying clients.
We work with clients to:
- Check eligibility before fees are paid; and
- Review eligibility each time an official fee is paid, as applicants may grow or change in structure over time and no longer qualify.
For many applicants, a brief discussion with a patent attorney is worthwhile to ensure fee reductions are not overlooked.
If you’re unsure about your eligibility for fee reductions on new or existing patent applications, please contact Russell IP for a free, no-obligation discussion.
EPO Fee Assistant FAQ
What is the EPO Fee Assistant?
A tool from the EPO to help users explore fee reductions and other financial support schemes available to some European patent applicants.
Who qualifies for micro-entity reductions at the EPO?
Patent applicants including universities, public-research organisations, non-profits, individuals and micro-organisations may qualify for micro-entity reductions.
How much can micro-entities save on EPO fees?
Potentially several thousand euros over the course of a patent application’s lifetime.
Does the EPO check whether I really qualify?
It can do. You may be required to supply evidence of your eligibility for any fee reductions you claim.
How can a patent attorney help reduce official fees?
A patent attorney can help you assess which fee reductions you qualify for, claim those fee reductions, and gather any evidence requested by the EPO to prove your eligibility.
