Readers will recall my January 26 posting and my February 4 posting about the consequences of the decision on January 15 by the Swiss central bank to allow the Swiss Franc to rise to its natural level after over a year during which the bank had sought to cap the percentage difference between the Swiss Franc and the Euro. The Swiss Franc jumped 15 to 20 to 30 percent relative to various other currencies. I predicted that the International Bureau would seek to revise the “equivalent amounts” for the PCT international filing fee and other PCT fees payable to the International Bureau and would seek to make the revised fees effective much sooner than the usual delay of 3-4 months. Now the new fees have been set and indeed they will take effect sooner than the usual delay.
The new fees will take effect April 1, 2015. The biggest increase on that day will be the fee payable at RO/SE in Swedish krone, up 21% from SEK 9970 to SEK 12070. The fee payable in Euros (payable in RO/EP and in many other ROs) will increase 16% from €1097 to €1273.
Interestingly two of the “equivalent amounts” for which I expected to see a revision ended staying unchanged. The US dollar fee amount was $1384 and will remain at $1384 with no change on April 1. As it turns out the US dollar recovered enough of its value relative to the Swiss Franc in the days leading up to February 9 that the exchange rate disparity no longer exceeded the 5% threshold needed for a revision.
The Japanese Yen fee will also not increase on April 1. In the case of the Japanese Yen fee, there was already a revision in the pipeline that was (and still is) scheduled to take effect March 1, 2015, from ￥150900 to ￥164300. As a result the remaining exchange rate disparity for the yen likewise did not on February 9 exceed the 5% threshold.
Some other “equivalent fees” will also get revised on April 1. For US filers perhaps the most notable will be the decrease in the ISA/EP search fee, dropping from $2366 to $2125. This revision is basically due to recent strengthening of the dollar relative to the Euro.