For certain small or new businesses, the JPO is reducing official fees for filing a request for examination and annuity fees from April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2018. The reduction of the annuity fees will be applied in applications for which a request for examination has been filed between April 2014 and March 2018.

To qualify for the reduction, an applicant must meet one of the following requirements:

1.  A small-scale sole proprietor (up to 20 employees, up to 5 employees for trade or service business)
2.  A sole proprietor who started his/her business within 10 years
3.  A small enterprise/corporation (up to 20 employees, up to 5 employees for trade or service business) *
4.  A corporation within 10 years after its establishment, and the capital of the corporation is less than three hundred million yen (approximately 3 million dollars)
   *3 and 4: A subsidiary of a large corporation is excluded.

Official Fees Reduction:
Request for examination: Reduced to 1/3 of normal fee
Annuities (1st to 10th): Reduced to 1/3 of normal fee

If an applicant would like to qualify for the fee reduction, a certificate showing that the applicant meets one of the requirements indicated above must be filed with the JPO together with a request for the reduction. If you would like to request the reduction, please let us know which type of corporation among the above referenced four the applicant is so that we can inform you of the details of the required certificate.