SMEs and individual innovators are likely to benefit from recent changes to official trade mark, patent and design fees. Reducing initial costs such as those involved in early stage evaluation of patentability, and up-front application costs for trade marks, are expected to support innovation.

The registration fee for a trade mark has been completely removed, thereby reducing the overall up-front cost to register a trade mark in Australia. There is also a significant reduction in the official fee for undertaking an international type search, which is commonly used for assessing patentability of innovations. These fee changes came into effect on 10 October 2016.

IP Australia is however off-setting the reduction in certain up-front fees by increasing maintenance fees in the latter stages of the term of IP rights, when the rights are likely to be generating more value for their owners.

The changes follow an internal review of IP Australia's cost recovery requirements, and community consultation with stakeholders to canvass suggestions on how fees can be changed in order to foster innovation and benefit IP Australia's customer base. The fee changes are also intended to reduce red tape by streamlining the fee structure and to bring IP Australia more into line with other Patent and Trade mark Offices.

For our full analysis and fee breakdowns, go to https://goo.gl/WiMkuz