This process explains how and when to pay maintenance fees for your application or patent.
Maintenance fees for divisional applications
Divisional applications carry their own maintenance fees. They are separate from the parent application.
Applications and patents related to section 20 of the Patent Act (items of national security) have special procedures. Be sure to follow the necessary steps.
On this page
If you are already familiar with this process
Log in to the patent maintenance fee electronic service
1. Before you pay
Before you pay, keep the following in mind:
- Maintenance fees for applications and patents related to section 20 of the Patent Act (items of national security), can't be paid online. Follow the steps required to pay maintenance fees for these applications or patents.
- You may be eligible to reduce your maintenance fees if you meet the requirements of the small entity status condition. For example, if you are an entity that has fewer than 100 employees or are a university, you are considered a small entity.
- Learn how to file a request using the small entity declaration tool.
2. Fees and timelines
Consult our list of the current patent maintenance fee amounts.
When do I pay the patent maintenance fee?
You must pay a maintenance fee for your patent or patent application every year, starting on the second anniversary of your filing date. For example, if you file on , your first maintenance fee will be due on .
You will not receive a reminder that maintenance fees must be paid by a certain date.
If you don't pay your fee, you may lose your intellectual property protection and the technology described in your patent (or application) could be used by others.
You can pay your maintenance fees on a yearly basis or pay for several years at once.
The fees increase on the 5th, 10th and 15th anniversaries of the filing of the patent application.
Tools to help you figure out your fees
How to find your payment history
You can find your payment history by searching for your patent in the Canadian Patent Database. Once you find your patent, click the admin status tab and scroll down to payment history.
What happens if I miss a payment?
If you miss a payment deadline, you'll be charged a late fee regardless of whether a notice to this effect is sent.
- $150 (CAD) – patent late fee
The latest you can pay your missed payment and late fee is whichever of the following comes later:
- 6 months after your maintenance fee is due
- 2 months after you receive the Commissioner's notice saying that they must be paid
If you still don't pay your fees during this period, one of the following will apply:
- your application will be considered abandoned (reinstate your abandoned application )
- your patent will be deemed expired (reverse the deemed expiry of the patent)
3. Pay maintenance fee
Pay the fee online
To pay online, you need both a) a My Canada Business Account; and b) an activated patent e-commerce profile.
If you don't have these, you should set them up as soon as possible after submitting your patent application.
Note that it takes 2 to 3 weeks for the patent e-commerce activation code to be mailed to you.
a) My Canada Business Account
You need a My Canada Business Account to access CIPO's online services.
Don't have an account? Visit the login page and follow the steps to create an account.
b) Patent e-commerce profile
You need a patent e-commerce profile to allow the e-service to communicate with your back-end client account at the Office. Please request your patent e-commerce profile as soon as possible after submitting your patent application.
You can pay patent maintenance fees online once you have a patent application or patent number and an activated profile.
How to create a patent e-commerce profile
- Log in to the Patent maintenance fees electronic service.
- Create a profile and request activation.
- When you request activation, an activation code will be emailed to you at the email address found in the Office records. If you don't have one registered with the Office, you will receive the code by mail. It takes 2 to 3 weeks to process these requests. It may take longer if the code is sent by mail.
- Once you receive your activation code, log in to the system. You'll be prompted to enter your activation code. This will complete your registration.
- You can now pay patent maintenance fees using the electronic service.
For more information on the registration process, visit our maintenance fees online help page.
Lost your patent e-commerce activation code?
Contact us to recover it.
Accepted forms of payment
To pay your fees online you can only use:
- a credit card; or
- your CIPO deposit account
Log in to the patent maintenance fee electronic service
Online payments are processed Monday to Friday from 6:30 am to 10:00 pm (ET). For security reasons, your session will be timed out after 30 minutes if there is no activity.
Other ways to pay
Patents general correspondence form
The patents general correspondence form should only be used for payment if you can't access the patent maintenance fees electronic service.
When you attempt to pay maintenance fees using the Patents general correspondence form, you'll be shown a note telling you that you must use the maintenance fees electronic service. Please ignore this message if you can't access the maintenance fees electronic service.
Note that you must select the maintenance fee being paid.
Fax
To pay by fax, you need to use the Fee form.
Complete your Fee form and fax it to either of the following:
- 819-953-2476
- 819-953-6742
Note: Do not also send a hard copy by mail, because this could result in you making 2 payments.
Accepted forms of payment
- Credit card
- Your CIPO deposit account
- Cheques or money orders
- Wire transfers
Learn more about our payment methods.
To pay by mail, you need to use the Fee form.
Complete your Fee form and mail it to:
Canadian Intellectual Property Office
Finance, Integrated Planning and Administration
Place du Portage I
50 Victoria Street
Room C114
Gatineau, QC K1A 0C9
Accepted forms of payment
- Credit card
- Your CIPO deposit account
- Cheques or money orders
- Wire transfers
Learn more about our payment methods.
In person
To pay in person, download and complete the Fee form and bring it with you to our headquarters at 50 Victoria Street, Place du Portage I, Room C114 in Gatineau, Quebec. If you can't download a copy, we'll have a paper copy you can use.
Accepted forms of payment
- Credit card
- Your CIPO deposit account
- Cheques or money orders
- Wire transfers
- Debit card (only accepted at CIPO headquarters)
Learn more about our payment methods.