The Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court Agreement have issued a consultation document (here) which includes fee proposals for the system.

As well as proposing fee levels, the consultation also addresses a number of points including:

• support for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), not for profit organisations and certain other bodies as set out in the Agreement by providing two possible options

• the threshold at which a value-based fee will be payable

• a scale of ceilings for recoverable costs

Comments have been requested on any aspect of the proposal and will be considered by the Preparatory Committee and its Working Groups prior to publication of an agreed fee structure.

Responses are to be sent electronically to the secretariat@unified-patent-court.org before midnight on the 31 July (there is no guarantee that responses received after this date will be taken into consideration).