Maintain Your Patent

• Pay the Maintenance Fee

• Update the Entity Status or Fee Address

• Check the Current Status of a Patent

• Reinstate an Expired Patent

• About Patent Maintenance Fees

Pay the Maintenance Fee

Maintenance fee payments must include both the patent number and corresponding application number, and may be submitted by any recognized party or third party. For a reissue patent number, the application number required is the reissue application number. Fees are subject to change. The current fee amounts are available on the USPTO Fee Schedule.  See the Accepted Payment Methods page for payment information.

Note if you pay by mail: The "St. Louis, MO 63197-9000” mailing address is no longer in use. Checks or money orders should be made payable to the “Director of the USPTO”. The payment date will be the date received at the USPTO unless you are using the certificate of mailing procedure set forth in 37 CFR 1.8, or the USPS Priority Mail Express procedure set forth in 37 CFR 1.10.

Update the Entity Status or Fee Address

Private PAIR users may submit entity status or address change requests online, which are processed immediately. The application must be associated to your customer number, or the attorney or agent of record must have been given power of attorney. (See the Change Entity Status, Update Application Address or Create New Customer Number Quick Start Guide for more information.) Other users will still need to submit change requests using the methods below.

If you are paying a patent maintenance fee online or by wire, the change requests may be sent using EFS-Web (registered users only) or by fax to the Maintenance Fee Branch at 571-273-6500. Please allow 5-7 business days for your request to be processed before attempting to pay your maintenance fee. If you are paying by fax or mail, the change requests should be included with your maintenance fee payment.  All change requests must be signed by a recognized party.

Maintenance fees are reduced by 50 or 75 percent if the owner of the invention qualifies as a small or micro entity, such as independent inventors, small businesses, or nonprofit organizations. A written assertion of entitlement to small entity status or certification of micro entity status must be filed prior to or at the time of paying a maintenance fee and signed by a recognized party (see 37 CFR 1.27 and 1.29). If you qualify, form SB/15A or SB/15B should be used to make a proper certification of micro entity status. Notification of a change in status resulting in a loss of entitlement to small or micro entity status must be filed prior to or at the time of paying the maintenance fee.

A fee address can be established by submitting the “Fee Address” Indication Form to have correspondence related solely to maintenance fees mailed to a different address than the correspondence address for the application. (If you have no Customer Number, the Request for Customer Number form must also be completed and will result in a delay processing the “Fee Address” Indication Form.) If you do not want to establish a fee address for maintenance fee purposes, the correspondence address can be updated by submitting the Change of Correspondence Address (Patent) form.

Check the Current Status of a Patent

Bibliographic data, payment window dates, and the fee amounts due for a specific patent are available through the Patent Maintenance Fees Storefront. There, you can also download a statement outlining maintenance fee payment history for your patent.

Weekly lists of patents for which maintenance fees may now be paid and of patents expired for failure to pay maintenance fees are available through the Official Gazette. Choose the year and week of interest, and select the "Notice of Maintenance Fees Payable" or the "Notice of Expiration of Patents Due to Failure to Pay Maintenance Fee" link.

Reinstate an Expired Patent

If a maintenance fee has not been paid in a timely manner and the owner of the patent wants to get the patent rights reinstated, a petition and proper fees are required. Any petition to accept an unintentionally delayed payment of a maintenance fee must include:  1) the required maintenance fee set forth in § 1.20(e) through (g); 2) the petition fee as set forth in § 1.17(m); 3) a statement that the delay in payment of the maintenance fee was unintentional; and 4) be signed in compliance with § 1.33(b).

If the date of expiration is less than 24 months, file a petition using the Web-based ePetition in EFS-Web (registered and unregistered users), which is automatically processed and granted immediately upon submission if the petition meets all of the requirements. Petitioners know instantly whether all requirements have been met. See the Web-based ePetition Quick Start Guide (pages 44-47 ) for step-by-step filing instructions.

If the date of expiration is more than 24 months, file a petition by submitting the completed form SB/66 and paying the proper fees; there are significant processing delays and the filing does not guarantee a granted petition. Contact the Office of Petitions at 571-272-3282 for assistance on filing a petition to accept unintentionally delayed payment of the maintenance fee.

About Patent Maintenance Fees

A maintenance fee is a fee that is required for maintaining in force all utility and reissue utility patents based on applications filed on or after December 12, 1980. Generally, utility patents expire after 20 years from the application filing date subject to the payment of appropriate maintenance fees. If a maintenance fee is not paid the patent protection lapses and the rights provided by a patent are no longer enforceable. Maintenance fees are not required for a design or plant patent, or for statutory invention registrations (SIR).

Maintenance fees are due three times during the life of a patent, and may be paid without surcharge at 3 to 3.5 years, 7 to 7.5 years, and 11 to 11.5 years after the date of issue. The fee cannot be paid early.  Maintenance fees may also be paid with a surcharge during the "grace periods" at 3.5 to 4 years, 7.5 to 8 years, and 11.5 to 12 years after the date of issue.

A maintenance fee and any necessary surcharge submitted for a patent must be submitted in the amount due on the date the maintenance fee and any necessary surcharge are paid. Payment of less than the required amount will not constitute payment of a maintenance fee or surcharge on a patent. If the last day for paying a maintenance fee or any applicable surcharge falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or federal holiday, the fee may be paid on the succeeding day which is not a Saturday, Sunday, or federal holiday. 

It is the responsibility of the patentee to ensure the maintenance fee and any required surcharge are paid timely to prevent expiration of the patent. If the maintenance fee is not paid within the first six months in the year in which it can be paid, a Maintenance Fee Reminder notice is sent to the fee address or correspondence address on record. If the maintenance fee and any applicable surcharge are not paid by the end of the 4th, 8th, or 12th years after the date of issue, the patent rights lapse and a Notice of Patent Expiration is sent to the fee address or correspondence address on record. The failure to receive the notices will not shift the burden of monitoring the time for paying a maintenance fee from the patentee to the USPTO.  If a fee address has not been established, the notices are sent to the correspondence address.

The USPTO does not calculate the expiration dates for patents. In response to patent owner and public inquiry, the USPTO provides a downloadable patent term calculator as a resource to help the public estimate the expiration date of a patent. See the Patent Term Calculator page for more information.

Contact Us

If you need additional assistance, please contact the Maintenance Fee Branch by telephone at 571-272-6500.

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