The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)'s proposed regulations to adjust fees have been published in Part I of the Canada Gazette. To review the complete regulatory package, see "Industry, Dept. of" under the Proposed Regulations section.
We encourage clients and stakeholders to review the Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement before providing feedback on the proposal by using the new commenting feature. The consultation will be open to the public until .
About the fee adjustment
The fees for CIPO's intellectual property (IP) services have not been substantively updated since 2004, thereby not accounting for the impact of 18 years of inflation. This has resulted in a structural deficit where revenues from fees no longer cover the costs required to deliver services. To address this challenge, CIPO is proposing to increase most fees by 25% in an effort to catch up with almost 30% inflation since 2004.
In April 2022, CIPO held a public consultation to solicit feedback from 5,000 clients and stakeholders on the proposed fee adjustment. CIPO then published a What we heard report that summarized comments received, including findings, conclusions and next steps. This feedback was considered, and adjustments to the proposal were made, prior to the fee proposal moving forward.
The proposed fee adjustment is central to supporting Canada's IP Strategy, meeting growing demand, fulfilling trade and treaty obligations, providing internationally comparable services and addressing the critical capacity and technological investments needed to provide improved services to CIPO's domestic and international clients.
Summary of the proposed adjustment
- CIPO does not receive annual parliamentary funding for its operations. Therefore CIPO's fees must be sufficient to recover the costs of the associated activities in order to adequately fund and support its operations.
- The adjusted fee amounts are proposed to be effective .
- The updated fees will be rounded to the nearest whole dollar amount, and CIPO will explore options to maintain whole dollar amounts for future annual adjustments mandated by the Service Fees Act.
- CIPO has maintained the proposal as a one-time 25% fee adjustment, rather than implemented over time, because CIPO's fees are already structured in a way that phases in costs over the lifespan of an IP right.
- The 25% fee increase will not apply to "small entity" patent fees for Canadian small businesses.
- In addition, the employee limit for a small entity will increase from 50 to less than 100 employees.