Thursday, December 18, 2008

Malaysia no longer qualifies for 75% search fee reduction

On 21 October 2008, the EPO revised the states that qualifies for 75% search fee reduction for PCT application. According to PCT newsletter (December) the states that qualify for fee reduction effective from 1 January 2009 are listed in the following link:

http://www.wipo.int/pct/en/newslett/2008/12/article_0006.html


Malaysia is not in the list.

An applicant from Malaysia can nominate Europe, Australia or Korea to conduct the PCT search. The search fee, as in Dec 08, on MyIPO website is RM9065 for Europe, RM5153 for Australia and RM869 for Korea. Until today, a natural person from Malaysia qualifies for the 75% fee reduction by nominating Europe to conduct the search. From 1 January 2009 onwards, a natural person from Malaysia no longer enjoys the 75% fee reduction.

The European search report is favored by some applicants because a clear report can hasten patent application and enjoys fee reduction in national phase application.

No comments: