On Wednesday, 1 April, changes to the price list of paid services of the Latvian Patent Office (LPO) entered into force, replacing the previous regulations that had been in effect since 2015. The new price list specifies the fees for certain paid services, the target groups eligible for reduced fees, and also provides for the discontinuation of services that are no longer relevant. As a result, the price list has been aligned with the LPO’s actual operations, the range of services provided, and the needs of its clients.
It is important to emphasise that the LPO’s basic fees, including the costs related to the registration of industrial property, remain unchanged.
The main changes concern the discontinuation of the previously applied 10% fee reduction for services regarding trademarks, collective marks, certification marks and industrial designs in cases where an application is submitted and paid for electronically using the LPO's online form. Given that electronic submission of applications has become a standard and most common practice and no longer entails any additional administrative burden, the continuation of such a reduction is no longer objectively justified. The changes will ensure a uniform, transparent and technologically neutral application of fees, irrespective of the method of submission.
Fee reductions will continue to be applied to the LPO's primary target group – inventors and designers seeking to protect their intellectual property. Likewise, the reduced fees will be retained for schoolchildren and will also become available for full‑time students who submit applications for services independently. This approach provides direct support to creators of industrial property, encourages the development of new inventions and industrial designs, and promotes the involvement of young inventors and designers in innovation processes.
Updating the price list, the descriptions of certain LPO's services have been clarified, as well as some services – no longer possible to provide or not in demand, or where the requested information is already publicly available in the LPO’s databases – have been removed from it. The changes apply in particular to the LPO’s information services, including the issuance of extracts and statements from the registers. The LPO therefore invites clients who have previously used these services to pay special attention to the said changes.
Information on the paid services is available in the official publication “Latvijas Vēstnesis”.