The UK Intellectual Property Office is introducing new fees in the new fiscal year.
As of 6 April 2018 additional fees will be payable for applications filed that have in excess of 35 pages in the description. Furthermore, excess claim fees are being introduced for the first time for applications that have more than 25 claims. The additional charges are £10 per page for pages 36 and above and £20 for each claim over 25.
These fees are relatively modest in comparison to equivalent charges at the European Patent Office, where €235 is charged for each of claims 16 and above. Nevertheless, such charges can soon add up and the new fees will apply to direct and UK national phase applications filed on or after 6 April 2018. The excess claim fees are payable as part of the search fee and the excess pages fees are payable as part of the examination fee.
In addition to the above, there is now a surcharge payable if the application fee is not paid on filing and there are also standard increases in all fee amounts.