The European Patent Office ("EPO") recently announced that most of its fees will increase by between 5 and 10 per cent from 1 April 2012.

The changes in fees

A comparison of the old and new fees is given below (this shows the changes in the most common fees paid to the EPO; there are fee increases for other fees which are less commonly paid)....

... Practical implications

If you know that you want to enter the European regional phase of a PCT application, you should do so before 1 April 2012, to save around 5% on the official fees due

Please see full update below for more information.