Venezuela IP News | Substantial Increase in Official Fees

Last month, the Venezuelan Intellectual Property Office issued an official notice implementing a substantial increase in official fees for patent, trademark and copyright matters, ranging from 40% to 456% for different trademark/related applications, and up to over 6,000% for patent annuities.

The excessive increase in official fees has not gone unnoticed by local agents, who have raised concerns about additional deterrents for protecting IPR’s in the country resulting from the subject increase and the inconvenient timing, during the second monetary reconversion in the last three years within a hyperinflation crisis that has lasted for over four years, the severe restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the PTO’s own technological shortcomings, all of which impose challenging conditions for basic IP procurement.

SAPI’s latest official fees increase seem to contrast with a substandard level of service, which has been added to the list of concerns raised by local agents.

Additional concerns have been raised regarding fees applicable to responses to office action and oppositions and to the arbitrary modification of deadlines for attending to different notices within the same period, whose legality is in question, and which seem to be an overreach of the PTO’s powers.

COVAPI, the local agents’ association, has called for the suspension of the PTO’s notice and for a meeting with its authorities, aiming at a review and reduction of the official fees, which the PTO has also done in a previous occasion.

Click here to access the official notice and do not hesitate to contact us should you require any additional information.