Opt-out fee reduced to zero

United Kingdom
26/02/2016
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This article was produced by Olswang LLP, which joined with CMS on 1 May 2017.

The Preparatory Committee has published the Rules on Court fees and Recoverable Costs for the UPC (subject to “legal scrubbing”). A significant change is that the opt-out fee has been reduced to zero (from €80), so the only cost of opting out patents is now the administrative burden.

The Committee has confirmed that Court fees will consist of a fixed fee element (eg. €11,000 for an infringement action) and for claims over €750,000, an additional value-based element calculated by reference to the value of the action (eg. €26,000 for a €4m claim). Some claims and applications will only attract fixed fees (eg. €20,000 for revocation claims).

The Committee has also agreed a scale of ceilings for recoverable costs (ranging from €38,000 to €2m depending on the value of the action). Guidelines for assessing the value of the action have also been published which suggest that, “The most practicable method, in most cases, will be a valuation based on an appropriate licence fee. ”

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