Preface
This brief note is not legal advice and is for educational purposes only.
Contact your patent attorney for more information.
Discussion
The US does not charge any renewal/maintenance fees until after a patent is issued and then within a 1 year window starting at 3, 7, and 11 years after the patent issue date.
Unlike the US most foreign countries have an annual renewal or maintenance fee (annuity). For example, in the EPO (European Patent Office) the annuity is due each year regardless of whether the patent application has been examined or not starting from the 3rd year after the international filing date. See EPC Art. 86
Now if you’d like to see the actual fees for entering from a PCT application (info gets updated almost weekly), it can be seen here:
https://my.epoline.org/epoline-portal/classic/epoline.Scheduleoffees?page=0
Look in the lower right corner for “Renewal fee for the 3rd year”. The following page has years 10-20. Note that the fees for the 10th year onward are the same and all fees are quoted in EURo. Also note that fees not paid on time can incur a penalty of 50% of the belated renewal fee.
As of 2022-07 here are the costs in EUR with approximate USD.
| Year | Euro (€) | ~USD ($) |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd | 505 | 504 |
| 4th | 630 | 628 |
| 5th | 880 | 877 |
| 6th | 1125 | 1122 |
| 7th | 1245 | 1241 |
| 8th | 1370 | 1366 |
| 9th | 1495 | 1491 |
| 10th-20th (same cost each year) | 1690 | 1685 |
Conclusion
As you can see it gets pretty expensive in Europe especially if your patent application is not getting examined.
Varies based on the current exchange rate. Currently exchange rate 1 USD = 0.997068 EUR
