What you need to know about changes to CIPO's fees

To address its current structural deficit situation and return the organization to a position of financial sustainability, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) is increasing most of its fees on January 1, 2024 . CIPO does not receive annual funding for its operations from the Government of Canada, but instead is fully funded through the revenues it generates through service fees. Since 2004, CIPO has not undergone a full fee review, or substantively adjusted its fees. A number of operational and financial factors have converged to put the organization in a critical financial position, including almost 30% inflation since 2004, labour costs, application volumes and critical capital investments. This fee adjustment is central to supporting Canada's Intellectual Property (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 clients.

Summary of the fee adjustment

• The adjusted fee amounts are effective January 1, 2024 , and reflect:
  • a one-time 25% fee increase to most CIPO fees
  • the annual fee adjustment, applicable to certain CIPO fees
    • this adjustment occurs annually and is in line with the requirements of the Service Fees Act
    • More specifically, in respect of patent fees, the Patent Rules definition of small entity is being expanded to include an entity that employs less than 100 employees instead of 50 or fewer employees.

    Adjusted fee amounts – effective January 1, 2024

    For the exact fees, both prior to and after January 1, 2024 , please consult CIPO's fee pages:

    • Patents
    • Trademarks
    • Copyright
    • Industrial designs
    • Geographical indications and official marks
    • Integrated circuit topographies

    Some clients have begun receiving CIPO correspondence with payment deadlines expiring in 2024. We invite you to read our fee pages to familiarize yourself with the adjusted fee amounts in effect for next year.

    CIPO's fee adjustment timeline

    Prior to drafting a fee proposal, CIPO held preliminary consultations in August 2021 with 3 key stakeholder groups, which included the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada, the Fédération internationale des conseils en propriété intellectuelle and the Canadian Bar Association. In March 2022, CIPO launched an online 30-day public consultation to solicit feedback from clients and stakeholders on its draft fee proposal. CIPO then published a What we heard report in August 2022 that summarized feedback received, including ideas, opinions and perspectives submitted throughout the consultation process. This feedback was considered and adjustments to the proposal were made prior to the development of regulations.

    On December 31, 2022 , the proposed regulations were published in the Canada Gazette, Part I . CIPO announced a 30-day comment period and invited the public to provide additional feedback. Five individuals and 2 organizations provided a total of 12 comments. You can view the comments in Part I of the Canada Gazette for each regulation.

    The final regulations were published in the Canada Gazette, Part II on June 21, 2023 . Clients and stakeholders will have a sufficient period of time before the January 1, 2024 coming-into-force date to familiarize themselves with the regulatory changes and to implement any changes needed to their processes, documentation and information technology.

    Frequently asked questions

    1. How is CIPO funded?

    CIPO is funded entirely by fee revenues for IP services, which means that the operations run on a cost-recovery basis from the fees paid by clients.

    2. What if I have previously received correspondence listing 2024 fees?

    If you pay the fee in 2024, you will need to pay the 2024 fee amount that is published in our fee pages, even if correspondence indicates a different fee amount for 2024. Correspondence will not be withdrawn and resent with corrected fee amounts.

    3. Do fees for IP services change every year?

    As per the Services Fees Act, most fees will be adjusted yearly based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI). For fees related to IP, this adjustment happens annually on January 1. Visit the Statistics Canada website for more information on CPI.

    4. How were CIPO's 2024 adjusted fee amounts calculated?

    Prior to the implementation of the regulatory changes, CIPO's fees were already scheduled to increase on January 1, 2024 , to reflect the percentage change over 12 months in the April 2022 All-items CPI, as published by Statistics Canada. This annual fee adjustment is applicable to certain CIPO fees and is in line with the requirements of the Service Fees Act.

    For 2024, a one-time 25% fee increase will be applied to most CIPO fees along with the annual CPI adjustment. The new fee amounts will be effective January 1, 2024 , and are listed on CIPO's fee pages.

    5. How do I pay a fee?

    You can pay your fees online, in person, by mail or by fax. To learn more, you can review CIPO's payment instructions. You must pay all fees to CIPO in Canadian dollars. We do not accept foreign currencies or post-dated cheques.

    6. I am a small entity and want to access the small entity fees. How do I submit a small entity declaration?

    The Small Entity Declaration Tool provides you with information on how to submit a small entity declaration, according to the specific requirements set out in subsections 44(3) or 112(3) of the Patent Rules . For more information about small entity fees, consult chapter 10 of the Manual of Patent Office Practice.

    7. What are the miscellaneous amendments related to the Patent Rules ?

    The Patent Rules are amended to refer explicitly to the late payment fees for international applications set out in 16bis.2 of the Regulations under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and 58bis.2 of the Regulations under the PCT, respectively. These amendments to the Patent Rules do not represent a change in practice for CIPO's PCT Receiving Office which already charges these late payment fees.

    In addition to the changes identified above, the Patent Rules were amended on the registration date to correct various omissions and ambiguities that were introduced with the amendments to the Patent Rules that came into force on October 3, 2022 . These include:

    • a clarification of when a request for continued examination must be made
    • in the case of late national phase entry, a requirement to provide a translation of the claims into English or French (depending on the situation)
    • in the case of late national phase entry, the introduction of a deemed abandonment provision for failure to request continued examination when required to do so
      • this applies to patent applications for which the filing date is on or after October 1, 1996 , but before October 30, 2019