The Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation recently adopted Decision CA/D 9/25, amending the Implementing Regulations to the European Patent Convention (EPC) and the related fee schedules. The new fee standards will officially take effect on April 1, 2026, and will apply to most fees paid on or after that date. This adjustment involves the fee standards for multiple stages including filing, search, examination, and renewal, and introduces a reduction mechanism for the supplementary European search fee specifically for international search reports issued by certain authorities.
Overview of Main Adjustments
1. Amendment to Implementing Regulations: The last sentence of Rule 93(2) of the EPC Implementing Regulations is deleted.
2. Updated Fee Standards: The amounts of multiple fees have been adjusted, and the structure of some fees has been optimized (see the fee table below for details).
3. New Reduction Measure: For international applications for which the international search report or a supplementary international search report was drawn up by the Austrian Patent Office, the Finnish Patent and Registration Office, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office, the Swedish Intellectual Property Office, the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, the Nordic Patent Institute, or the Visegrad Patent Institute, the supplementary European search fee will be reduced by €1,365. This measure applies to applications filed up to and including March 31, 2028, and for which the fee is paid on or after April 1, 2026.
4. Transitional Arrangements:
i. For fees paid in due time but only at the pre-April 1, 2026 rate between April 1, 2026, and September 30, 2026, the payment will be deemed valid if the deficit is made good within two months of an invitation to that effect from the EPO.
ii. The new standard for the transmittal fee for an international application applies only to applications filed on or after April 1, 2026.
5. Regulatory Replacement: Effective April 1, 2026, the relevant provisions of the previous fee adjustment decision (CA/D 16/23) adopted in 2023 will be replaced by this new regulation.
EPO Table of Key Fees (Effective from April 1, 2026)
The following is a summary of some key fees applicable to payments made on or after April 1, 2026. For applications filed before April 1, 2009, some fees are subject to the old standards. Please refer to the official decision text for details.
Fee Item | Description | Amount (EUR) |
1. Filing fee | European patent application or international application entering the European phase (EPO Form 1200) (i) Filed online (ii) Not filed online |
135 285 |
1a. Additional fee for excess pages | Application documents exceeding 35 pages (pages forming part of a sequence listing excluded), for the 36th and each subsequent page | 17 |
1b. Additional fee for divisional applications | For a divisional application filed in respect of any earlier application which is itself a divisional application: • 2nd generation • 3rd generation • 4th generation • 5th or any subsequent generation |
235
480 715 955 |
2. Search fee | • European or supplementary European search • International search • Supplementary international search | 1,595
1,885 1,885 |
3. Designation fee | For one or more Contracting States (applications filed on or after 1 April 2009) | 720 |
4. Renewal fees (annual fees) | Calculated from the date of filing of the application: • 3rd year • 4th year • 5th year • 6th year • 7th year • 8th year • 9th year • 10th and each subsequent year | 725 885 1,050 1,215 1,375 1,540 1,700 1,865 |
5. Additional fee for belated payment of renewal fee |
| 50% of the belated renewal fee |
6. Examination fee | • European/international application requiring a supplementary European search report • International application not requiring a supplementary European search report | 2,010
2,240 |
7. Fee for grant | Including fee for publication of the European patent specification (applications filed on or after 1 April 2009) | 1,135 |
10. Opposition fee |
| 880 |
10a. Limitation or revocation fee | • Request for limitation • Request for revocation | 1,425 645 |
11. Appeal fee | • By persons referred to in Rule 7a, (2)(a)-(d) • By any other person | 2,015 2,925 |
11a. Fee for petition for review |
| 3,570 |
15. Claims fee | For claims exceeding 15 (applications filed on or after 1 April 2009): • 16th to 50th claim, each • 51st and each subsequent claim, each |
290 720 |
18. Transmittal fee for an international application | Applicable to applications filed on or after April 1, 2026 | 160 |
(Note: This table is a partial summary of fees and does not include all items, such as fees for further processing, re-establishment of rights, technical opinions, etc. For the complete list, please refer to the officially published text of the European Patent Office.)
Important Notice: The information in this article is based on a non-authoritative text made available in advance by the EPO. The final legally binding text is the one subsequently published in the monthly edition of the Official Journal of the EPO. Applicants are strongly advised to consult the final official documents published on the EPO website before making any fee payment decisions.
Source: https://www.epo.org/en/legal/official-journal/decision-administrative-council-11-december-2025
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