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Annuity Fees

Updated

Attributes
Measures
Underlying Data and Calculation
How to Use the Annuity Fees Attributes and Measures

PatentSight allows you to determine the overall remaining annuity fees of a patent family or a patent portfolio. The calculation is based on annuity fee data from 40 patent authorities. You can find out the entire fees that would occur if a patent family or a patent portfolio was maintained for its remaining lifetime. Alternatively, you can also split the fees by year and by authority.

Attributes

Remaining Annuity Fee Payment In: The authority in which the payment of annuity fees will be required to keep a patent family or all families in a portfolio in force for the remaining lifetime.
Remaining Annuity Fee Payment Year: The year in which the payment of annuity fees will be required to keep a patent family or all families in a portfolio in force for the remaining lifetime.
 

Measures

Remaining Annuity Fees: The remaining annuity fees that will have to be paid to keep a patent family or all families in a portfolio in force for the remaining lifetime.
Remaining Annuity Fees in Year Selected: The remaining annuity fees that will have to be paid in the year selected to keep the patent family or all families in a portfolio in force for the remaining lifetime.
Share in Total Remaining Annuity Fees of Owner: The share of the total remaining annuity fees that an owner will have to pay to keep their entire portfolio of active patent families in force for the remaining lifetime.

Underlying Data and Calculation

  • PatentSight collects annuity fee (maintenance fee) data from the 40 most relevant patent offices around the world.
  • We update the remaining annuity fee data annually.
  • The remaining annuity fees attributes and measures are strictly forward-looking: They cannot be used in combination with past Reporting Dates and any fees paid before the most recent Reporting Date are excluded (also for the current year).
  • PatentSight forecasts the dates of payment based on the filing date or grant date (depending on the authority) and the payment structure applied in each authority. Extensions of payment periods and fines associated with an extension are excluded.
  • For the calculation of the remaining lifetime annuity fees, we assume that all patent families are kept pending or in force for the longest possible time in all authorities in which they are currently active.
  • The calculation does not include factors like inflation, changes in maintenance fees, or service costs.
  • Pending EP applications are treated as if they were pending at the EPO for the entire lifetime.
  • For WIPO applications no costs are applied.

How to Use the Annuity Fees Attributes and Measures

You can use the annuity fees attributes and measures to quantify IP management efforts. Attributes and measures are available for all charts and tables via the section "Annuity Fees".



You can use these attributes and measures to analyze how the annuity fees of a patent portfolio will develop over time.

Number01.png
Use the measure "Remaining Annuity Fees" to see the remaining lifetime annuity fees.
Number02.png Use the attribute "Remaining Annuity Fee Payment Year" to show the fees grouped by the years in which they will have to be paid.

Alternatively, you can identify those authorities in which an owner will need to pay the highest total annuity fees.

Number01.png
Use the attribute "Remaining Annuity Fee Payment In" to group your chart or table by the authorities in which the annuity fees will have to be paid.
Number02.png Use the measure "Remaining Annuity Fees in Year Selected" to show the annuity fees in a specific year. You can select the desired year when you select this measure.

You can also benefit from pre-defined templates that include the annuity fees measures and attributes:

Yet another analysis option is to compare how much competitors invest in different technology fields:

Reading Example: IBM will need to spend 10.2% of their entire annuity fee expenses on patents classified into the CPC "G06F 3" to keep them active for the remaining lifetime.