The filing of a patent application under the European Patent Convention (EPC) envisages a fee reduction scheme for applicants that fall under the definition of “small entity” or “micro entity”.
The small entity status gives access to a 30% reduction on the official filing fee and subsequent examination fee to applicants that file a European patent application in an official language, other than English, French or German, of the contracting state in which the applicant is resident or has citizenship, and that are:
- Natural persons;
- Non-profit organisations, universities or public research organisations, or
- Enterprises satisfying the following criteria:
- employ fewer than 250 persons;
- have annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million; and
- for which no more than 25% of the capital is held directly or indirectly by another company that does not comply with these requirements.
To establish if your company falls under the definition of small and medium-sized enterprises we recommend to look up the Commission Recommendation 2003/361/CE of the European Commision, of 6 May 2003.
The micro entity status enables to obtain a 30% reducution on a number of fees in relation to European patent application, up to a maximum of 5 patent applications filed within 5 years. Such reduction can be applied also to the filing and examination fees, in addition to the reduction for small entities.
Micro entities are defined as:
- Natural persons;
- Non-profit organisations, universities or public research organisations, or
- Enterprises satisfying the following criteria:
- employ fewer than 10 persons;
- have annual turnover not exceeding EUR 2 million
To establish if your company falls under the definition of micro enterprises we recommend to look up the Commission Recommendation 2003/361/CE of the European Commision, of 6 May 2003.
Please note that the indication of compliance to the above categories must be accompanied by a declaration and random checks may be carried out by the EPO. In the case of an incorrect indication, the fees paid according to the reduction scheme will be deemed not to have been paid. As a consequence, in the best case scenario it will be necessary to pay the fee in its entirety plus a 50% late payment fee, whereas in the worst case scenario the relative patent applications could be declared lapsed.
