Patent Maintenance Fee Data

Over 30% of USPTO revenue is derived from maintenance fees that are paid by patent holders. Under the current fee structure, three post-grant maintenance fees must be paid in order to keep a patent from prematurely expiring. A large entity pays $980 3.5 years after issuance; $2,480 7.5 years after issuance; and $4,110 11.5 after issuance. If the fee is not paid then the patent will expire at the next 4, 8, or 12 year mark. This is easy-money for the USPTO because because it does not involve any agency operational budget other than the expense of actually collecting the fee.

I used the USPTO’s new maintenance-fee data to create the charts below that show historic maintenance fee payments. The first chart might be designated a “survival rate” chart. In particular, the chart shows the percent of patents whose maintenance fees were paid at each of the the four (blue), eight (red), and twelve (green) year marks.

The graph generally shows that the rate of patent maintenance fee payments has been declining for about the past year-and-a-half.

PatentlyO056

Of the 100,000+ patents issued in 1997, fewer than 50% are still in-force.

31 thoughts on “Patent Maintenance Fee Data

  1. 31

    For Rsearcher: CPI fees have always been neglible, and I see them as a great bargain. Even if they have increased, $28 for a $980 maintenance fee, for example, guaranteed to be paid on time, is a bargain. Patent attorney professional fees for managing all this are another area of inquiry. AIPLA puts out a survey listing averages of about $250 per payment, but I think the survey does not account for big firms which charge a whole lot more.

  2. 30

    Guys..How about the maintenance/renewal fees itself? The fees have been increasing in the past few years, irrespective of the economic downturn, which definitely has an effect on the renewals. Is there any data on the renewal/maintenance fees for the past few years? By which we could analyze the renewals..

    If we look at the overall cost incurred during a patent renewal, it consists of Official/maintenance/renewal fees, Service Fees & Agent fees.

    So how about the service fees charged by Annuity service providers like CPA, CPI, Dennemeyer? Have the fees been increasing or have they decreased during recession? This fee also will have an effect on the renewals..

  3. 28

    I can see I’ve pushed your buttons again Mooney…

    Quit pushing Mooney’s buttons and answer my question. It wasn’t a difficult one.

    Oook.

  4. 26

    I think it’s pretty clear that YOU are doing the puffing…

    Oh, good. I was wondering, because of all the puffing sounds coming from your direction.

    Since you’re oh so clear-headed, maybe you can manage to give a coherent answer to that question I asked a couple of posts up.

  5. 23

    huff, puff, “Also, I’m assuming by “socialist coup” you don’t mean “democratic election”. Please specify what coup you’re actually referring to.” huff, puff

    Exactly…

  6. 22

    What does that have to do with the Hopey Changey Socialist Coup?

    What does the drop in new patent filings and maintenance fee payments have to do with the Hopey Changey Socialist Coup?

    Also, I’m assuming by “socialist coup” you don’t mean “democratic election”. Please specify what coup you’re actually referring to.

  7. 21

    “The economy went bad before Obama took office”

    What does that have to do with the Hopey Changey Socialist Coup?

  8. 20

    Guess that “Hopey Changey” (Socialist coup) thing didn’t provide a lot of hope for entrepreneurs…

    The economy went bad before Obama took office, if you’ll recall. I believe that makes it Bill Clinton’s fault.

  9. 19

    “Was there some event that occurred about a year and a half ago that could explain this?”

    Guess that “Hopey Changey” (Socialist coup) thing didn’t provide a lot of hope for entrepreneurs…

  10. 18

    CORRECTION!

    I meant in my post at 5:58 that it sounds like Dennis is graphing the former of my two choices, i.e., that for each year of issuance the percentage of patents for which the maintenance fee was paid is based upon the total patents issued that year and the percentages are not based upon the available pool at that point. Therefore nearly 50% of third maintenance payments were made rather than the 27% you calculated.

  11. 16

    Paul,

    I believe the question to Dennis is are the percentages the percentage of patents that issued in the corresponding year that received a third maintenance payment, or are they the percentage of patents still alive that received maintenance payments.

    It sounded to me like the latter, although nearly 50% of patents issued in 1997 receiving a third payment appears high to me.

  12. 15

    Getting cumulative total patent early expiration abandonments straight is important because some economists-cum-“patent experts” have been running around claiming huge increases in the number of patents.

    and what are you running around claiming, Paul, that the number of patents is going down? You might want to look at the data again.

  13. 14

    Getting cumulative total patent early expiration abandonments straight is important because some economists-cum-“patent experts” have been running around claiming huge increases in the number of patents. Obviously clueless to the fact that all these non-maintained patents are no longer patents, they are freely publicly usable publication teachings that cannot be asserted against anyone, and in almost all cases, have never been asserted.

  14. 13

    Egads I have made a mistake – switching the first and third – maybe I am not Cy Nical enough….

  15. 12

    Cy Nical,

    They cannot be cumulative already – you cannot increase a later percentage. You cannot have half the first maintenance fee drop out and then magically have more than half not drop out at the second maintenance fee.

    The math still deflates the hype.

  16. 11

    Paul,
    Yes – the math deflates the hype.

    No, the percentages shown for the 2nd and 3rd maintenance fees are already cumulative, i.e., referenced back to the original number of issued patents.

    So, for 1997 patents, 85% had the first maintenance fee paid, 76% of those had the 2nd fee paid, and 76% of those had the 3rd fee paid. 85% x 76% x 76% = 50%.

  17. 9

    It’s early and I’m groggy, but per this chart would not the percentage of all alive [non-abandoned] 1997 patents [issued more than 12.5 years ago, hence subjected to all 3 maintenance fees] be 85% x 65% x 50%, or only 27%, or considerably less than half? With a downward trend for later issue dates?

  18. 8

    Where can i get the historical date for the patent renewal fee? for the years 2009, 2008 and 2007?

  19. 7

    Thanks for this post. Definitively interesting. I agree with Amy; could be interesting to see some disagregated plot by tech fields. (Quite interested to see the “705” & “902”.)

    Another aspect to see how many these are US PCT..

  20. 6

    Of the 100,000+ patents issued in 1997, fewer than 50% are still pending

    And what proportion of those no longer pending are the so-called “bad” patents?

    If anything, this shows that the marketplace is self-policing and we donts need any clamping down on badz patents. Kinda points out teh hype about long term negative effects of granting patents.

  21. 5

    Was there some event that occurred about a year and a half ago that could explain this?

    I suspect the overall patent-devaluing effects of the KSR decision probably played a role here. The case was decided in late April 2007, but it no doubt took awhile for the full impact of the case to be determined and begin to influence portfolio reviews.

    You could also look to the credit crisis and ensuing recession. It’s probably a little of column A and more than a little of column B.

  22. 4

    The graph generally shows that the rate of patent maintenance fee payments has been declining for about the past year-and-a-half.

    Was there some event that occurred about a year and a half ago that could explain this?

  23. 3

    I’m in the same boat as Patent Smart–I wonder if the pharma classes compare to software, etc. I think we all know the answer to that, but it would be interesting to see whether there is anything interesting that turns up.

  24. 2

    “Of the 100,000+ patents issued in 1997, fewer than 50% are still pending.”

    Sweet. Those patent owners must have some neat tricks up their sleeves.

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