Patent Protection Costs in Europe: Northern Europe

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Published on 28 April 2019

In one of our previous articles, Patent Protection Costs in Europe: Southern Europe, we illuminated the costs of protecting inventions and innovations (i.e., the costs of patent protection) in the Southern European economies of Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. In this article, we shall delve into the costs of patent protection in Northern European economies.

Northern Europe

For the purpose of this article, the region of Northern Europe refers to the region encompassing the following countries and territories: Channel Islands, Denmark, Estonia, Faeroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, Åland Islands, Jersey, Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands, Nordic Countries, Baltic States, and Guernsey. This classification is in line with that followed by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations.

National Patent Filings in Northern Europe

In the year 2017, the National Intellectual Property/Patent Offices of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom collectively received more than 30,000 patent applications, with about three-fourths of the total patent applications being filed with the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office ("UKIPO").

Apart from the UKIPO, only the Danish Patent and Trademark Office, the Finnish Patent and Registration Office, the Norwegian Industrial Property Office, and the Swedish Patent and Registration Office received more than 1,000 patent applications.

The above figures are based on the numbers in the World Intellectual Property Indicators 2018 report published by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

European Patent Validations in Northern Europe

The above referenced countries are also member states of the European Patent Office. As a result, patents granted by the European Patent Office may also be validated in these jurisdictions.

As per the latest Annual Report published by the European Patent Office, more than 100,000 patents were validated in each of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom in 2017. In contrast, less than 100,000 patents were validated in the other jurisdictions, with the percentage of granted European patents that were validated ranging from about 85% in Norway to about 93% in Iceland and Lithuania.

The Costs of Patent Protection in Northern Europe

Let us now study the costs involved in obtaining and maintaining a patent in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, which are the top four Northern European economies in terms of national patent filings. Since a patent is typically maintained for at least six to ten years, we shall consider the costs from December 2018 through December 2028. There are three categories of costs involved: official fees, attorney charges, and translation costs.

For the purposes of this article, we shall consider a patent specification drafted in English comprised of 40 pages (including five pages of drawings and 15 pages of claims) and 15 claims, which is to be filed electronically by a company (i.e., large entity) to which the patent filing rights in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom have been assigned. Further, we shall consider that: individual national patent applications having one priority claim are to be filed, the applicant does not intend to grant a license to willing third parties, a voluntary International Type Search is not requested for in Sweden or Denmark, and the patent application filing fee is paid at the time of filing the patent application in the United Kingdom.

For the above scenario, the total costs to file a patent application, get the patent issued, and maintain the patent are approximately $40,000. As shown in Table 1, the estimated costs are spread across the five different stages of the patenting process: Filing, Examination, Prosecution, Grant, and MaintenanceFees/Renewal Fees/Annuities.

Patent Filing Costs

The estimated patent filing costs in Denmark and Norway are inclusive of the official fees for each claim in the patent specification in excess of 10 claims, the attorney charges for handling the excess claims, and the attorney charges for handling the priority claim.

In Sweden, the estimated patent filing costs are inclusive of the official fees for each claim in the patent specification in excess of 10 claims, in addition to the attorney charges for handling the priority claim and filing an assignment document with the Swedish Patent and Registration Office.

In the United Kingdom, the estimated patent filing costs are inclusive of the official search fees, in addition to the attorney charges for handling the priority claim and filing an Inventorship Statement with the UKIPO.

'Go Green' Filing Discounts

Of the four jurisdictions, the United Kingdom is the only jurisdiction to offer a Go Green incentive for the electronic filing of patent applications and the electronic payment of official fees. If paid electronically, the official filing fees and search fees charged by the UKIPO are approximately $76 and $191 respectively. On the other hand, if said fees are paid non-electronically, they are approximately $115 and $229 respectively.

Patent Examination Costs

The estimated patent examination costs in the United Kingdom are inclusive of the basic official patent examination fee and the official fees for requesting an examination of each page in the patent specification in excess of 35 pages.

Patent Prosecution Costs

The estimated patent prosecution costs are based on between one and two office actions with substantive objections being issued in each jurisdiction. These costs are inclusive of the attorney charges for reporting each office action, preparing a response to each office action, and processing the response to each office action.

Patent Grant Costs and the Costs of Translating the Patent Specification

With the exception of the United Kingdom, official fees are charged at the patent grant stage in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The estimated patent grant fees are inclusive of the official fees for publishing each page in the patent specification in excess of 14 pages in Norway (excluding the 15 pages of claims that are to be translated into Norwegian), in addition to the attorney charges for handling the excess pages.

Sincea translation of the claims of the patent specification from English into the official language is mandatory in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden at the patent grant stage, the grant costs in these countries are inclusive of the costs of translating the claims. The estimated costs of translating 15 pages of claims into Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish vary between $1,695 in Sweden to $2,042 in Denmark. When expressed as a percentage of the total patent grant costs, the patent specification translation costs vary between about 53% of total patent grant costs in Norway to about 69% of the total patent grant costs in Denmark.

Patent Maintenance Fees in Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden

An identical system of patent maintenance fees is followed in the Scandinavian jurisdictions of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. In these three jurisdictions, the accumulated patent maintenance fees in respect of the first three years from the date of filing are to be paid on or before the last day of the month containing the second anniversary of the patent filing date. Subsequent patent maintenance fees are payable on an annual basis in advance, with the due date for payment being the last day of the month corresponding to the month of filing of the patent application.

The approximate official patent maintenance fees for maintaining the patent through December 2028 are more or less similar in the three jurisdictions, and vary from $2,227 in Sweden to $2,507 in Norway.

Patent Maintenance Fees in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, there will be no accrual of patent maintenance fees for patents granted within three years and nine months (i.e., 45 months) from the date of filing. The due date for the payment of the first patent maintenance fee is the last day of the month in which the fourth anniversary of the filing date falls (in respect of the fifth year), or three months from the date of grant, whichever is later. Therefore, the payment of the first patent maintenance fee may entail the payment of the patent maintenance fees in respect of more than one year (i.e., accumulated patent maintenance fees), in case the grant of the patent gets delayed. Subsequent patent maintenance fees are payable on an annual basis in advance, with the due date for payment being the last day of the month corresponding to the month of filing of the patent application.

The estimate shown above is for a patent that will be granted in 2022. The approximate official patent maintenance fees for maintaining the patent through December 2028 are $1,158.

Patent Annuity Costs by Country

The patent annuity costs by country, when expressed as a percentage of the total costs of patenting, vary between about 29% of the total estimated costs in Norwayto about 40% of the total estimated costs in Sweden.

National Filings or European Patent Validation? – A Comparison of Costs

An alternative to filing individual national patent applications in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom is to file a patent application with the European Patent Office and validate the European Patent in the same four jurisdictions.

The approximate costs of filing a European patent application, requesting an examination of and prosecuting the European patent application, completing the patent grant procedure, and maintaining the patent application till grant (granted in the year 2022) are approximately $18,000.

The estimated costs of validating a European Patent in the four jurisdictions range from $609 in the United Kingdom to $3,530 in Norway. With the exception of the United Kingdom, official fees are charged in the other three jurisdictions towards the completion of the validation procedure (grant and publication or printing). Likewise, the estimated costs of maintaining the validated patent vary from $2,061 in the United Kingdom to $3,027 in Norway.

The total costs of obtaining and maintaining a patent through the validation route across all four jurisdictions amount to approximately $39,200, which is more or less similar to the costs of filing, prosecuting, and maintaining individual national patent applications. However, this may not always hold true, and will depend on the specific jurisdictions of interest. For a higher number of jurisdictions, the validation route may prove to be cost-effective when compared to the costs of filing, prosecuting, and maintaining individual national patent applications.

European Patent Validation – Patent Translation Costs

All four jurisdictions are signatories of the London Agreement, which seeks to reduce or eliminate the translation costs incurred while validating a European Patent in member states of the European Patent Office. Therefore, while no translation is required in the United Kingdom, a translation of the claims into Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish is mandatory during the completion of patent validation in the Scandinavian jurisdictions.

As mentioned earlier, the estimated costs of translating the patent specification into Danish, Norwegian, and Swedishvary between $1,695 in Sweden to $2,042 in Denmark. When expressed as a percentage of the total patent validation costs, the patent specification translation costs vary between about 51% of total patent validation costs in Norway to about 61% of the total patent validation costs in Denmark.

Patent Cost Calculators

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Venkatesh Viswanath (Senior Content Strategist, Quantify IP) contributed to this article.
Exchange Rates Used: 1 U.S. Dollar = 6.57 Danish Krone; 0.79 British Pounds; 8.54 Norwegian Krone; and 9.03 Swedish Krona

Note: The estimates and fees depicted in this article are based on the Official Fee Schedules as on December 6, 2018