European patents and international PCT patents: higher cost savings

There are several simple ways to significantly reduce the costs of your European patent application, both by filing directly with the European Patent Office (‘EPO’) from a national patent application and by entering the European Regional Phase from a patent application. international (‘PCT’) at 31 months from the earliest priority date.

Occasionally, we are presented with a European patent specification or an international patent specification that has a large number of pages, which on more than one occasion has exceeded one hundred. As we know, each page that exceeds the first 35 pages incurs an official ‘leftover page’ rate, which is currently 13 euros. Therefore, these “page overrun” fees can add up soon.

So the question is, how can we limit these “page overrun” fees when filing European patent applications or international PCT patent applications?

Taking the European patent application first, the specification can obviously be formatted if it is presented directly, for example, when claiming the priority of a local or national national patent application. However, when entering the European regional phase from an international PCT patent application, it is also possible to submit reformatted pages containing the same text in an effort to reduce the number of pages and therefore the official European Office fees. patent.

For this, the specification margins can be at least:

Top margin: 2 cm

Left side margin: 2.5 cm

Right side margin: 2 cm

Bottom margin: 2 cm

By removing the left side line numbers on the pages, and possibly also the page numbers at the top or bottom, the specification text can be expanded to meet the minimum margin widths. Strictly page numbers must be provided, but the omission of page numbers is not likely to be raised as a formal defect. The page number, if included, should not be in the margin; hence the benefit of omitting the page number so that the specification text can fully extend to the top and bottom margins.

The line spacing can also be adjusted. Many specifications use double line spacing. However, by reducing the line spacing to the minimum requirement of 1.5 points, this can also help to compact the text and thus reduce page numbers.

One last tip for specifying a European patent is to reduce the font size to a minimum of 0.21mm for uppercase letters. This equates to 11 points in Times New Roman. Reducing the font from the normal 12 point to 11 point can also help to compact the text and thus reduce the total number of pages.

Turning now to the international patent application (“PCT”), this has very similar requirements to the European patent application. The margin sizes mentioned above are the same, although the font size for capital letters should be a minimum of 0.28mm, not 0.21mm for European applications. Again, a specification formatted with 11 point Times New Roman is probably acceptable.

The minimum line spacing is also 1.5, which can be useful for compact text.

Other tips to consider are removing tabs for new paragraphs and also “condensing” the space between individual letters of words. In the latter case, the rules for text in the specifications of European patent applications and international patent applications do not mention the space between letters, and by reducing this space as much as possible while still being legible, it can again help. to reduce a total number. of pages.

The tips above provide a number of useful options to consider when trying to reduce the overhead costs associated with official fees payable to the European Patent Office when filing your European application or your European Regional Entry for an international PCT patent application.

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