As a Canadian independent inventor, I used to pay $150 CAD (Application) + $200 CAD (Examination) = $350 CAD on webpage "Filing/Completing a Canadian Application for Patent". As of 2004-01-01, however, the fees have increased to $200 CAD (Application) + $400 CAD (Examination) = $600 CAD, which represents an increase of 71%. For requesting examination alone, the increase was 100%. Although I recognise the need for CIPO to increase revenue, such doubling of upfront fees is definitely not "a very minor impact" or "reasonable increases in fees" for a poor Canadian independent inventor.
Here are my comments regarding CIPO Fee Review.
Preference to Canadians
Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) applies preferential tax rules for Canadian-Controlled Private Corporations (CCPC). Universities charge much higher tuition fees for international students. Why not CIPO which is a part of Industry Canada, one of whose mandates is "to improve Canada's innovation performance"?
On CIPO's website, E-services forms like "Filing/Completing a Canadian Application for Patent" and "General Correspondence" could list "Canada" first, followed by other NAFTA countries ("U.S.A." and "Mexico"), rather than purely alphabetical order starting with "Afghanistan" (no offence intended).
Introduce Canadian Micro-Entity fees
"A Small Entity is defined as an entity that employs 50 or fewer employees or that is a university." CIPO's reduced patent fees for Small Entities are very much appreciated. However, I do not find it fair that independent inventors with little or no revenue yet and small companies that are well-funded by venture capitals to the tune of millions of dollars are treated exactly the same way.
Canadian independent inventors would definitely benefit if there were Canadian Micro-Entity fees, i.e., 1/4 of the Large Entity fees.
The public transit offers 3-level fares. Such a flexible fee schedule can be modelled for patents, too.
Cash price ....... Large Entity
Ticket price ..... Small Entity (1/2)
Monthly pass ..... Canadian Micro-Entity (1/4)
Alternatively, the fees could have a sliding scale in proportion to the income of the individual/corporation, just like the progressive system of the Canadian income tax.
The harsh reality is that between 98% and 99% of patents fail to ever make money, according to a U.S. university study. In the U.S.A., there is a proposal for USPTO to introduce a new category called "Micro-Entity".
"The increasing complexity of IP applications provides a significant challenge to CIPO."
For the Final fee, there is an extra fee "for each page of specification and drawings in excess of 100 pages". Similarly, the basic Examination fee should be lowered, and it should scale in proportion to the number of claims in order to reflect the complexity in examination.
I do not find it fair that for the same entity size, both simple applications (mechanical or electrical) with only 10 claims and 10 pages in total pay exactly the same Application fee and Examination fee as biotechnology applications with hundreds of claims and thousands of pages long.
USPTO charges extra fees for "Independent claims in excess of three", "Claims in excess of twenty", etc., reflecting the complexity of each patent application.
Reduced fees for electronic filing of patent applications via E-commerce
CIPO should give discount to E-commerce submission as it theoretically streamlines the process and potentially reduces paperwork. Digital signature on a PDF file should be used instead of printing and re-imaging the date-stamped paper.
The PDF file preserves text in ASCII bytes. Once the text is imaged into TIFF, however, the ASCII information is lost, and optical character recognition (OCR) software must be used to reproduce the HTML files in Claims webpage. If the text were taken directly from the HTML/XML files that I submit, both CPU load and data storage will be greatly diminished, leading to significantly reduced patent processing cost.
CIPO already offers reduced fees for electronic filing of trade-mark applications and copyright applications. Banks have reduced fees for on-line and ATM transactions compared to human tellers.
Introduce new concept of "Dormant patents"
Some inventions appear to be worth protecting now, but it turns out after the patent issued that an economic situation makes it not ready to commercialise or to license for a few years. In these situations, patents could be temporarily abandoned but reinstated when the economic prospect turns around. Thus, there should be a longer grace period for reinstatement of an abandoned patent application. Where there is no IP rights claimed yet, Maintenance fees to maintain the IP rights should be waived.
Such a mechanism already exists, as in "Applications which are abandoned can be reinstated by making a request within the prescribed time limit, taking the necessary action and paying a reinstatement fee of $200." In order to address cases where benefits of patents are not immediate, the "prescribed time limit" should be increased from the present "12 months" to "anytime during the entire 20-year lifetime" (with the requirement of a lump-sum payment of applicable accumulated Maintenance fees, of course), especially for Canadian Micro-Entities.
Significant increases in fees on requesting the advance of an application for examination and on requesting reinstatement of an abandoned application are well justified.
Introduce new services for "Certificates"
CIPO could introduce an entirely new set of fees for a high-quality colour printout of "Filing Certificate" and a copy of the "Issued Patent", ready to be framed (cheap) or already framed (expensive). They are precious for institutions that put prestige value of patents to hang on their walls. As a Canadian independent inventor, I would be happy to have a PDF version of these certificates which can be placed on-line at no cost. When I become financially successful in the future, I would be ordering "official" colour printouts of these patent certificates from CIPO, which in turn will derive extra revenue from me.
US Patent Certificate, Inc. has been in business since 1983 printing out U.S. Patent Certificates and selling plaques, so they are obviously profitable. CIPO could be in this lucrative business.
Confirmation of Examination request
There is a long turnaround time for patent applications to be examined. During this period, a fledging startup company initially flush with venture capitals may fold, as in the case of Telecom and Optical industries lately. By the time the request for examination reaches the patent examiner's desk, the company may not have the means or desire to pay expensive patent agents/attorneys to have the patent applications executed. Therefore, it may make sense, just before the examination, for CIPO to check if there is a desire for patent execution, or if the company is still in business at all. A simple E-mail question: "Do you still want Patent Application X XXX XXX to be examined?" may save time and energy for the scarce patent examiners. Since the fees are non-refundable, CIPO can legally keep the money.
Respect for Canadian independent inventors
Multinational corporations benefit from the Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC). Colleges and Universities benefit from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and from Innovation Canada. For small Canadian companies, the National Research Council Canada (NRC) Industrial Research Assistance Programme (IRAP) and Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Scientific Research and Experimental Development Programme (SR&ED) specifically exclude assistance for patent fees.
Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) says that there must be a federal government branch somewhere to give assistance to pay patent fees. As a part of Industry Canada, CIPO could lobby for a programme to address patent fees for Canadian independent inventors.
USPTO has an Office of Independent Inventor Programs. There is even National Inventors Hall of Fame in the U.S.A.
As a pro se Canadian independent inventor who is determined to succeed but has not reached the goal yet, I am not one of "the vast majority of patent applicants (who) utilize the services of private sector patent agents to prepare their applications" cited in the REGULATORY IMPACT ANALYSIS STATEMENT. I hope that CIPO will consider my concrete proposals and make adjustments that accommodate my suggestions in order to become the best IP agency in the world.
