Canada Launches Online Patent Fee Payment System

by Mike Godfrey, for LawAndTax-News.com, Washington

06 January 2009

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has announced that its Patent Maintenance Fees Electronic Payment system is now available online.

The new electronic system will make paying patent maintenance fees more efficient and accurate for both clients and CIPO employees.

Currently, clients wishing to pay maintenance fees choose between going online to download forms to be filled out, or sending a request via CIPO's general correspondence electronic service, or of preparing their own letter.

Once received, Patent Branch employees manually process payments.

With the new electronic payment system, clients will be able to:

• see which payments are coming due (especially important for the clients who process multiple applications or patents);
• receive an instant payment confirmation as well as an electronic payment receipt;
• access their payment history;
• pay maintenance fees many years in advance; and
• transfer amounts due to another party for payment.

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