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The battle to expose the hidden cost of patent renewals

Tom McShane

For entrepreneurs that hold even a small number of global patents, annual renewal fees are an annoying fact of life.

Every patent holder must pay these fees to regional offices for their portfolio of patents and most delegate this responsibility to patent attorneys.

The annual fee that is paid to each patent office is usually fairly modest (£100 or so) but patent agents that generally take control of these payments vastly inflate their value without explaining to their clients what the fees are actually for.

London start-up RenewalsDesk was launched by Co-Founder Katherine Hedley to expose these hidden fees and allow patent holders to automatically pay for their patent renewals in-house without any hidden fees, saving both time and money.

“Fees charged for everything in the patent world are high – in most cases justifiably because patent laws are complex,” she said, “as a patent owner you get used to regular bills – and they are difficult to challenge because of this complexity.”

“For an entrepreneur with multiple patents covering a variety of different global regions the costs can spiral into tens of thousands of pounds each year.”

RenewalsDesk is a tool that allows patent holders to administer their intellectual property themselves, with automatic reminders when payments are due and even a system that automates the necessary payments to each patent office.

Because when patent holders outsource their patent renewals to patent attorneys, these attorneys will generally use 3rd party services to administer their patents.

Many of these companies carry highly inflated patent office fees.

“As an example, let’s say that you have a large entity patent for Canada that’s up for its fifth year renewal and you use the most prominent solution on the market.”

“In year 5 you’ll pay 2.5x more than the patent office fee and in year 6 – 10 you’ll pay 4x as much as the patent office fee.”

“With RenewalsDesk you get the peace-of-mind that your patent renewals are being taken care of and that there are no hidden fees,” Katherine concluded.

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Tom McShane

Tom McShane is a contributing writer for The Startup Magazine

4 thoughts on “The battle to expose the hidden cost of patent renewals”

  • While the renewalsdesk provides an excellent service, it is unreasonable for your publication to imply that all patent agents “vastly inflate inflate their value..”. A reliable patent agent can be of inestimable value to an entrepreneur in helping to navigate the process of securing appropriate patent protection for his innovation. There is no such thing as a global patent and choices must be made as to the appropriate territory of protection. Renewal fees in some territories are very much more than £100. For example, if you choose what seems the desirable European patent route even the lowest fee payable for the 3rd year is €465 and while an applicant can have a third party pay that, it’s tough love on your patent agent who has to nurse the file for years while the EPO does nothing.
    Congratulations are in order to the UK IPO which provides an online service for paying renewal fees with no hidden fees or whatsoever.
    If your patent agent won’t tell you the breakdown of costs then feel free to complain. This is a regulated profession

  • While the renewalsdesk provides an excellent service, it is unreasonable for your publication to imply that all patent agents “vastly inflate inflate their value..”. A reliable patent agent can be of inestimable value to an entrepreneur in helping to navigate the process of securing appropriate patent protection for his innovation. There is no such thing as a global patent and choices must be made as to the appropriate territory of protection. Renewal fees in some territories are very much more than £100. For example, if you choose what seems the desirable European patent route even the lowest fee payable for the 3rd year is €465 and while an applicant can have a third party pay that, it’s tough love on your patent agent who has to nurse the file for years while the EPO does nothing.
    Congratulations are in order to the UK IPO which provides an online service for paying renewal fees with no hidden fees or whatsoever.
    If your patent agent won’t tell you the breakdown of costs then feel free to complain. This is a regulated profession

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