Sunjeev Sikand Co-Authors IPO’s Comments on USPTO’s Proposed Patent Fee Adjustments

Washington, D.C. | December 2015 – Sunjeev Sikand has co-authored a letter to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on behalf of the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) in response to a request for public comments on the USPTO’s Proposed Patent Fee Schedule. IPO expressed appreciation that the USPTO did not propose any increase in the maintenance fees for patent owners. The letter questioned, however, the proposed 25% fee increase for exceeding 3 independent claims and 20 overall claims, which IPO argued does not comport with actual patent prosecution practices. Among others, the letter also questioned the proposed fee increases related to appeals, information disclosure statements, and requests for continued examination (RCE) and recommended changes to after final practice to ameliorate the need for RCEs. The letter argued that the drastic increase in design patent filing (48.4%) and issue (79%) fees related was unwarranted and could decrease the incentive to develop and protect new designs.

The IPO is a trade association composed of in-house corporate counsel for Fortune 500 companies and intellectual property attorneys. Mr. Sikand currently serves as Co-Vice Chair for IPO’s U.S. Patent Office Practice Committee.