Annuity fees, also known as renewal fees or maintenance fees, are payable every year in Europe. In Europe, renewal fees are payable both before grant of a patent and after grant. This is different from many other countries in the world.
If payment of an annuity fee is late, the patent or patent application is lost. Usually is is possible to recover the patent or patent application by paying a surcharge. However, recovery is only possible for a limited time period.
Patent annuities in Belgium
Patent annuity fees in Belgium are due every year in advance, starting from the third patent year. Therefore, the first payment is towards the end of the second patent year. The deadline is the last day of the month of the anniversary of the month of filing.
Official annuity fees in Belgium range from 40€ for the third year to 600€ for the 20th year. The following table gives an overview:
Late payment is possible for a period of 6 month. In that case, an official extra fee of 85€ (years 3-10) or 230€ (years 11-20) is applied.
Our standard attorney fee for taking care of payments of Belgian renewal fees is 99€ on top of the official fee. This includes sending reminders to you and reporting completed renewal.
Patent annuity fees in France
In France, the following official annuity fees are applicable:
Late payment is possible for a period of 6 month. In that case, an official extra fee of 50% is applicable.
Our standard attorney fee is the same as for Belgium, so 99€ on top of the official fee, in case an annuity fee payment in France is ordered together with an annuity fee payment in Belgium.
Patent annuity fees in Germany, UK, Ireland, Netherlands and other countries
We can also take care of renewal fee payments in other countries in Europe. For some countries we can do this ourselves. We use a trusted network of agents for other countries.
For many countries we can offer the same attorney fee as for Belgium, so 99€ in addition to the official maintanance fees, in case the renewal fee payment is ordered together with a renewaly fee payment in Belgium. This is the case for Germany, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Finland.
Of course we can also take care of your EPO renewal fees.
For other countries, please contact us.
National or European patent annuities?
For a European patent application renewal fees these are payable to the EPO. After grant and validation of a European patent, renewal fees are payable to the national patent offices. This is also the case for national patents or patent applications in the Europe.
For Euro-PCT applications the first payment is due two years after filing the PCT patent application.
At Patenthuis, we can monitor and take care of the payment of the annuities for your patents in order to keep them alive.
Urgent payments of renewal fees
For foreign patent attorneys we are happy to offer, depending on the case, urgent payments of patent annuities close to the deadline. This is possible at EPO, in Belgium, and in some other countries. Please contact us for details.
Depending on the urgency we will apply an urgency surcharge.