Trade mark application e-filing discount.
Regardless of the method of application, it currently costs GBP £200.00 in official fees payable to the patent office to apply to register a trade mark in the United Kingdom for goods or services that fall in one class. It costs a further GBP £50.00 in official fees for each additional class.
However, from 1 October 2009, UK trade mark applications made through the online application form (e-TM3), which include the full payment at the time of filing, will qualify for a discount of GBP 30.00 off the total cost. This also applies to the fast track application service.
The cost of filing an application through other methods (post, fax etc) will remain at current levels. Furthermore, because the discount applies only to e-filed applications where full payment is made at the time of filing, applicants utilising the period of grace to make payment will not qualify for the discount.
A typical cost for filing and prosecuting a UK trade mark application to registration in a normal case for two to four classes of goods and services where there are no third party oppositions filed, is in the region of £1,000 to £2,000 plus VAT. The whole process typically takes around 6 to 9 months from application to registration.
Article Published September 19th, 2009
