The Unified Patent Court has opened its public consultation on the rules on court fees and recoverable costs. The consultation will close on 31st July 2015, and all contributions should be sent to secretariat@unified-patent-court.org.
The consultation document presents two options for a revised Rule 370, a table of fees, a scale of ceilings for recoverable costs and an Explanatory Note. As well as proposing fee levels, the consultation also addresses :
- support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), not for profit organisations and certain other bodies as set out in the Agreement by providing two possible options
- the threshold at which a value-based fee will be payable
- a scale of ceilings for recoverable costs
One point to take into consideration however in evaluating the proposed fee structure is that “the fee structure for the Unified Patent Court will comprise fixed fees and, for certain actions, an additional value based fee. The fee levels proposed are the lowest that will enable eventual sustainability of the Court”…