IP Australia to Increase Fees

IP Australia to Increase Fees - Griffith Hack

25 June 2012

IP Australia has recently announced an increase in its fees for some services. The new fees are the result of a review which took place in September 2011 and are intended to be in place for the next four years. The fee changes include incentives to use an ‘approved means’ i.e. electronic as opposed to mail or facsimile, for specific transactions.

Most of the changes will take effect on 1 July 2012 with the exception of new fees for filing trade marks applications which will take effect on 1 October 2012.

The following key fee increases will take effect on 1 July 2012:

  • Registration Fee per class – increased from AU$250 to AU$300;
  • Renewal Fee per class by means other than approved means – increased from AU$300 to AU$350;
  • Trade Mark Opposition Hearing – increased from AU$500 to AU$600.

The following fee increases will take effect on 1 October 2012:

  • Filing trade mark application electronically per class – increased from AU$160 to AU$200;
  • Filing series trade mark application electronically per class – increased from AU$310 to AU$350

Key principles of the review as noted on IP Australia’s website are as follows:

  • “Providing an innovation incentive under the IP Rights legislation by keeping fees as low as possible and the fee structure as simple as possible.
  • Maintaining consistency with the international system for registering IP Rights and keeping IP Australia’s fees comparable with those of other international offices.
  • Creating incentives for customers to utilise lower cost electronic and web-based transaction channels”.

Please contact us if you have any queries regarding the fee increases.

For more information, please contact:

Nicola Scheepers, Principal
Email Nicola