Changes to fees
We are updating some of our fees to continue covering the costs of administering intellectual property (IP) rights and related legislation. These changes will take effect at midnight Tuesday 1 October 2024.
We review fees every 4 years, with the last update in October 2020. Our latest fee review commenced in 2023, aligning with our commitment to keeping our cost recovery arrangements consistent with the Australian Government Charging Policy.
The fee changes follow a review process of more than 15 months, including 2 public consultation phases. The public was invited to provide feedback on our fees and fee structure from 24 May 2023 to 2 July 2023. All feedback was considered and discussed by business representatives across IP Australia.
All viable proposals and proposed fee changes were documented in our draft Cost Recovery Implementation Statement (CRIS) and made available for public comment for 7 weeks from 1 December 2023 to 21 January 2024. We carefully considered all feedback before finalising our new fee arrangements.
Our ongoing focus is on productivity, keeping fees as low as possible while improving customer services and maintaining our financial viability through to the end of the decade. We believe the overall fee changes are reasonable within the context of our 4-year fee review cycle.
Summary table of fee changes
We encourage you to familiarise yourself with the summary table for updated fee arrangements of our products and services. Any fees not listed remain unchanged.
CRIS 2024–25
Get detailed information on our cost recovery arrangements and fee changes.
Costs awarded
As part of the fee review, we also undertook the opportunity to review the costs awarded in patents, trade marks and designs rights proceedings.
Learn more about the updates to costs, expenses and allowances that could be awarded.
Patent fees for exceeding 20 claims
There are procedural changes to how we charge fees for patent applications with more than 20 claims. For patent applications where examination is requested on or after 1 October 2024, a fee will apply for claims excessing 20, at the first examination report stage. If the number of claims increases beyond those at first report and beyond 20 claims, a further fee will be charged at acceptance stage.
For national applications, except those with expedited examination requests, we will provide 6 months notice before starting examination proceedings. This allows applicants to amend their applications before the first examination report, if needed.
For expedited examination requests made within the first 6 months of the new fee structure, we will attempt to notify the applicant’s representative if excess claims fees will apply, allowing applicants to amend their applications before the first examination report, if needed.
For more detailed information on this new process refer to the Patent Excess Claims Information.
If you would like more information on the fee review or our fees, please contact feereview@ipaustralia.gov.au.