Posts Tagged ‘Maintenance Fee’

EPO: European Patent Office
EPC: European Patent Convention
EU: European Union
Annuity: Annual fee required by many foreign patent offices to be paid to keep the patent application or grant pending.
Maintenance fee: Fee paid to the USPTO to keep a granted patent alive. The fee is due by the 4th, 8th and 12th anniversary of the issue date.
Renewal: Use this term when you are speaking about both foreign annuities and US maintenance fees.

When a patent application is filed under the EPC, the application is referred to as an EP application.