Attention everyone who is interested in overseas patent layout! The European Patent Office (EPO) has received important news regarding the adjustment of official fees, which involve multiple aspects such as patent application, authorization, and maintenance. Companies and individuals with European patent related needs must plan ahead!

According to the official gazette of the European Patent Office, its Administrative Committee has passed a resolution on December 11, 2025, officially amending the Implementing Regulations and Fee Rules of the European Patent Convention. The official fee adjustment will officially take effect from April 1, 2026, covering the entire process from patent application to patent maintenance, with an average increase of about 5%, involving a wide range of fee types.

To help applicants have a clearer understanding of the details of this fee adjustment, this article will list the specific comparisons before and after the price increase for commonly used official fee items such as patent application, authorization, and annual fee maintenance.

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1. Application/Examination/Authorization Stage:

2. Annual fee (maintenance phase)

3. Unincreased fees:
The basic fee, page fee, objection fee, and appeal fee for electronic submission of applications remain unchanged, reducing the initial burden on applicants.

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European patents have always been an important part of a company’s overseas intellectual property layout. The recent increase in official fees means that the cost of applying for European patents and maintaining their validity will increase in the future. For entities with relevant needs, it is particularly crucial to plan time and expenses in advance.

We would like to remind everyone to arrange the time nodes for patent application submission, authorization processing, annual fee payment and other related operations reasonably, and try to complete the relevant procedures before the official fee increase on April 1, 2026, effectively avoiding the cost increase caused by the fee increase and maximizing the reduction of the capital cost of patent layout.

We will also continue to follow up on the specific details of the adjustment of official fees by the European Patent Office, and compile a detailed comparison table of fee fluctuations to help everyone accurately plan their overseas patent layout. If you have any issues related to European patent application, maintenance, etc., you can also follow the professional intellectual property service platform to obtain one-stop intellectual property solutions, making overseas patent layout more efficient and worry free!

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