Croatian IPO Amends Official Fee Structure

Amendments to the regulation on fees charged by the Croatian Intellectual Property Office entered into force on August 8, 2020, amending trademark fees, introducing utility model fees and modifying patent examination fees to reflect the changes introduced by the new Croatian Patent Act in February 2020.

Trademark fees were amended so that the basic fee for filing or renewing a trademark now covers only one class, and not three classes as before.

A separate utility model fee has been introduced, because the new Patent Act introduced the “utility model” concept and separate registration procedures for patents and utility models, thus significantly shortening the registration procedure for utility models – a utility model application is published as a registered right as soon as the formal examination is completed.

The new Patent Act also introduced a mandatory preliminary prior art search and an optional preliminary written opinion on the patentability of an invention at an early stage of the examination procedure, before an application is published and before substantive examination is requested.

Therefore, the new patent examination fee structure now includes separate fees for the prior art search, an opinion on patentability and substantive examination, helping to decrease examination costs for applicants whose applications do not meet patentability requirements. Previously, all applicants had to pay the full examination fee.

It is important to note that all patent applications filed before the new Patent Act entered into force on February 20, 2020 are subject to examination requirements under the old Patent Act.

By: Ana Družinec

For more information, please contact Ana Družinec at our Croatia office.