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

What Is A Provisional Patent Application? (And What It Means in the UK) If you’re an inventor, founder or early-stage startup, you may have heard the phrase “provisional patent application”. We’re often asked: “Can you file a provisional patent application for us?”. “Can we file something quickly and then ‘finish it off’ later?”. This is understandable, but the terminology can be unhelpful, especially in the UK. In this post, we’ll explain: What “provisional patent application” formally means in the US. Why the UK patent system doesn’t use the term in the same way. How priority dates work and why your