By Christopher P. Singer —

In a Notice published in the Federal Register (73 Fed. Reg. 47534) on Wednesday, November 12, 2008, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced new fees for the transmittal and search for international applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).  The fees are designed to recover the estimated average cost to the Office of processing PCT international applications and preparing international search reports and written opinions for PCT international applications.  The new PCT transmittal fee will be $240 (adjusted from the current fee of $300), and the new search fee where the USPTO is acting as the International Searching Authority will be $2,080 (up from the current fee of 
$1,800).  The supplemental search fee for each examined additional invention, which applicants have the option of requesting will also increase to $2,080, from the current fee of $1,800.  The fees will apply to international applications having a receipt date that is on or after January 12, 2009.