Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has finalized the new fees for continuation (CON), patent applications. These fees are effective January 19, 2025. These fees include $2700 for CONs that are filed more than 6 years after the claimed earliest priority date ($1,080 to small entity applicants), and $4,000 for those that are filed more than 8 years after claimed earliest priority date ($1,600 to small entity applicants). These new fees will increase costs for filing CONs by up to 148.35% if they are filed more than six years after the first priority date, and 219.78% if they are filed more than nine years after that date. CONs can be used to expand patent protection by leveraging the same disclosure of the parent application.

To reduce the impact of the fee increases, clients who have patent families older than 6 years should consider filing placeholder applications before the new fees take effect on January 19, 2020. Placeholder CONs will be entitled to the old fee structure, but applicants will have additional time to determine a claim strategy for the new CON applications.