Significant Fee Increases at the UKIPO
28 November 2025
The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) has announced [↗] that it intends to increase its official fees by an average of 25% as from 1 April 2026. This increase is intended to counter the effects of inflation that has occurred since it last raised their fees for patents back in 2018.
A full table of the new patent fees [↗] can be found on the UKIPO's website. However, some of the more common fees encountered by applicants are reproduced below:
Fee | Current Fee | New Fee |
|---|---|---|
Application Fee (if paid on filing online) | £60 | £75 |
Request a search (UK application online) | £150 | £200 |
Excess claims fee (for each claim over 25) | £20 | £27 |
Request for a substantive examination - online | £100 | £130 |
Excess page fee (each page of description over 35) | £10 | £13 |
As a result of these increases the cost to file a standard patent application together with paying the search and examination fees (without any excess claims or page fees) will now cost £405 rather than £310 - an increase of approximately 30%.
It is also noted that the annual renewal fees that need to be paid in respect of granted patents have also been raised by an average of approximately 32.5%.
Despite these increases, the UKIPO continues to be attractively priced as a patenting venue. Nonetheless, where it is known that fees will be incurred, for example where a patent application is being planned, aiming to get this filed and the fees paid before the increase takes effect may prove beneficial.