Korean search fee to increase April 1

The search fee paid by US filers for the Korean International Searching Authority (for the first invention) will increase on April 1, 2018 from $1134 to $1218, an increase of about seven percent.

The nice inexpensive fee at ISA/KR for the second through n-th inventions will, however, remain unchanged at a mere ₩225000 (about $208 at today’s exchange rate).

This will leave the ranking of search fees (for the ISAs available to filers in RO/US) as of April 1, 2018 the same ranking as before that date:

  1. ISA/EP $2202
  2. ISA/US $2080 (large entity)
  3. ISA/AU $1722
  4. ISA/SG $1646
  5. ISA/JP $1385
  6. ISA/KR $1218
  7. ISA/US $1040 (small entity)
  8. ISA/IL $1009
  9. ISA/RU $691
  10. ISA/US $520 (micro entity)

For filers in RO/US, the most frequently selected ISAs are US, EP, and KR.  Those three ISAs account for something like 95% of the ISA choices made by RO/US filers.  Saying this differently, it is relatively rare that a filer in RO/US selects AU, SG, JP, IL or RU as the ISA.

For filers who anticipate an Invitation to Pay Additional Fees, ISA/KR continues to be an attractive choice from the point of view of fee costs, given the inexpensive fee for second through n-th inventions.

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