America-Israel Patent Law Blog

Most practitioners who are responsible for patent renewal fees include these deadlines in their docketing systems. Nevertheless, as with everything else for which there's a deadline, redundancy is a good thing. Which is why it's nice that the Israel PTO sends warning letters a few months before patent renewals are due. This isn't just out of the goodness of their hearts: the Regulations in Israel require that such a letter be sent (although in those rare cases in which the ILPTO fails to send such a letter, the ILPTO takes the position that it is not bound by that Regulation, and that the onus is always on the patentee to docket its renewal fees). The USPTO, by contrast, only sends a letter after a renewal fee payment has been missed, saying, "Nyeah nyeah, you missed the payment, now you can pay but only with a penalty."

But why can't the Israel PTO include the amount of the renewal fee due in its reminder letter? The notice of allowance letter that the office sends to applicants says how much the issue fee (allowance fee) will be. And the renewal fee reminder letter tells the reader how much each month of extension will cost. So why can't the renewal fee reminder letter include the cost of the renewal fee itself? Granted, it's only a few mouse clicks to look up the fee schedule, and you can save a pdf version of the fee schedule for quick reference later, but still, it shouldn't be a big deal to include the amount of the renewal fee itself in the reminder letter.