The search fee paid by US filers of PCT applications for the Russian searching authority will increase on December 6, 2017 from $482 to $698. You can see the details here.
This changes slightly the ranking by cost of the various searching authorities available to filers in RO/US. Here is how the search fees will rank after the fee change of December 6:
- EP – $2238
- US – $2080
- AU – $1688
- SG – $1552
- JP – $1372
- KR – $1114
- US – $1040 (small entity)
- IL – $963
- RU – $698
- US – $520 (micro entity)
The result of this fee change is that, for the first time in a very long time, the Russian patent office will not be the least expensive searching authority for PCT filers in RO/US. ISA/US will be the least expensive (but only for a filer that qualifies for micro entity status).
Filers in RO/US tend to pick ISA/EP, ISA/US, or ISA/KR. It is relatively rare that a US filer will pick ISA/RU (or ISA/AU, ISA/IL, ISA/JP, or ISA/SG). Nonetheless, for the US filer who is planning to file a PCT application in which ISA/RU is selected, there will be an opportunity to save a little money. The filer could file on December 5 rather than December 6, and the savings would be $216.
Does anyone have any experience with ISA/IL?